


Empress Academy

by Aliniel



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-06-09 15:30:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19478788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aliniel/pseuds/Aliniel
Summary: The action takes place in an alternative universe were the game's protagonist attend a very special school. Through this story you'll see the characters struggle with their personal affairs and at the same time, uncover something that will change their ordinary school lives. It will contain NSFW on the later chapters. Enjoy!





	1. The shining city in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I'm Aliniel, this is my first time posting here. You may already know me from other website, but if not, I hope you enjoy my work. I will be gradually posting this here so more people can see it. Enjoy it! :3

Another day with a deep blue sky. Silence and quietness accompanied the clouds on their way to the higher mountains. A silence that was fast interrupted by the sound of two engines burning fuel. A sky ship soared overhead with two big engines attached to its lower stern. The ship had three rows of small rounded windows along it's sides and a glass cupule on top. There were four helix propellers around the cupule, pointing up to keep the ship stable. It was painted black and bore the blue and white Hamel flag.

Somewhere between the center of the windows second row, there was a young blonde boy, looking excited through said window. He was getting so impatient he left his seat and headed to the glass cupule.

The top of the sky ship was built to accommodate several passengers: there was a table with refreshments and also a set of binoculars hanging around. The only thing that could be seen from there however, was the Altera floating island.

It was the ship's destination. The island floated in the air as if it were on the ocean. A huge city rested upon its plateau. All of its buildings were mostly grey in color from the distance, the only ones that stood out were the "Nasod Palace" and the "Sky ship dock". The Nasod Palace was an immense building composed of three black towers. Two thin towers erected around a central spire which stood at twice the other's height. They were taller than Lanox's volcano, and topped with antenna arrays that flashed aerial warning lights for all incoming sky ships. It was quite the sight.

The Sky ship dock on the other hand was a huge hangar. A set of piers extended from the bottom of it. The docks were organized in a fashion that allowed the larger ships to dock at the bottom and progressively smaller ones towards the top. Each floor had two piers, forming a "U" shape were all ships moored.

"Incredible, so this is the Altera city…" The young boy said breathlessly.

"It's even better once you're in inside, Chung." A man in a black suit said.

Chung looked at him in disbelief. Even better? It looked impossible. The man went back into the ship inner chambers after taking a stretch. Chung stopped his sightseeing to look at his own reflection on the glass cupule. He was wearing a uniform. A black blazer with a red stripe on the neck and the flaps, showing the academy crest on the hearth pocket: A rose twisting around a sword with the name "Empress Academy" under it. Matched with a pair of navy trousers. The academy didn't imposed any rule over shoes, so Chung wore black leather shoes. He thought the uniform was a little gloomy, even with the red stripe adorning it, but he also heard it wasn't actually mandatory to wear it, so he didn't mind.

"Attention. All passengers must return to their seats for landing," a voice announced through megaphone.

Chung quickly left the deck and made his way back to his seat. Like everyone else, he buckled his security belt and watched the landing maneuver from the window. The ship was already near the border of Altera Island. The two big engines on the stern shut down, letting the sky ship glide for a while, descending, and adjusting its elevation. The main engines rotated then, pointing now to the opposite direction. The engines started, making small but strong combustions that slow decelerated the ship as it approached the dock. Chung saw the huge walls of the hangar cover both sides of the pier. They were landing on one of the highest floors of the whole building. Finally a last combustion stopped the ship.

"We have successfully landed on Altera Island, Anchor district. Passengers may now disembark. We remind all passengers currently heading to Besma to please remain on the sky ship."

The megaphone announcement was cut by the noise the passengers made while getting off. Chung managed to take his luggage, a medium bag and a large cylinder one; and headed out. The black suited man followed him.

"Alright young prince: we are here. From now on you're on your own. I'll take the next sky ship back to Hamel. I wish you the best of luck and bid you farewell."

Chung bowed to say goodbye as the man left to head to another pier. He turned around, alone now, and made his way along the multitude of people who had disembarked the same ship as him. He was surprised by the roar of another sky ship. It was clearly the same model as the one he boarded, but this was even larger. Three more rows of windows and five meters longer. Painted red, the ship docked right next to Hamel's. The flag from Belder marked its origin. Passengers got off, making the dock even more crowded. Chung tried his best not to lose his luggage at the same time he headed to the nearest elevator.

It was quite complicated, but the machine was able to bring him to the first floor of the hangar. He then rushed to the railing and looked down. There was something he really wanted to see. A huge ship, as big as the whole dock containing it. It was moored on the lowest level. It was completely grey, and unlike any other sky ship, this one boasted huge guns on top.

"Its length is 250 meters, the main guns are 57cm high caliber guns, thousands of secondary armaments lay beneath its 300mm thick steel armor. It's the result of the cooperation between Hamel naval enginery and Altera industry: the super dreadnought class battleship _Elrios's Wrath_!" Chung said out loud in excitement.

The warships was the Nasod Navy's flagship. It was usually on the press. It achieved the impressive amount of 27 victories against the demon navy.

"Ha ha ha! I see you like that kind of stuff, young boy" A voice shouted right next to Chung.

He looked at the person talking to him. He was wearing a similar outfit than his, but with some differences. The stripe on the neck and flap was white, and there were another stripe on the blazer's cuffs. The blazer also had a golden chain that rounded the right shoulder and locked onto a lion head shaped adornment. Chung quickly recognized it as the academy's teachers outfit. And more importantly, he recognized that teacher.

"Principal Penensio!" Chung said bowing to him.

"Save the formalities for the entrance ceremony, mister" Penensio said, pointing behind him.

Chung looked over the principal to see a group of uniformed students lining up. A bus was waiting to be filled, presumably heading to Empress Academy. Chung thanked the principal and got in line. He looked at all other students. There were a bunch of boys and girls with extremely pale skin and colored gems on their foreheads or chests. Some of them carried little drones or floating machines with them. Chung also saw a group of girls from Hamel, he recognized them from his last school.

"Are you a transfer student as well?"

A tall girl wearing the student uniform asked Chung the moment she placed herself in line next to him. The girl's uniform was similar except for the navy trousers were a black skirt that also had the red stripe on the bottom end.

"Ah, yes. My name is Chung, nice to meet you" Chung said, bowing.

"I am Ara Haan, it is a pleasure." Ara answered with her own bow.

A person from the bus started roll call. Chung heard his and headed inside. Ara was unfortunately called over to the other bus. He sat on the designated seat and waited. The road extended to the hangar walls, Chung was impatient to see the city behind them. When all the students were finally settled, the bus began moving.

They passed the hangar walls. Chung stuck his face to the glass. Altera city was impressive. Tall buildings of over 10 stories high extended on both sides of the road. Neon lights advertised stores, the most crowded streets had screens floating over the road to display information about the news, the weather or just to spam ads. A lot of cars circulated on the streets. Chung recognized some of them, but almost all of them were brands only available to buy in Altera.

The buildings became less dense as they neared the campus. Finally the bus stopped. A long, brown brick wall separated the campus from the rest of the city. The bus only took some minutes to clear the security gate and the barrier was lifted, allowing the vehicles to enter the campus. A huge campus extended in all directions. From gardens to sports fields. Everything the academy needed was available. Chung squinted his eyes to try and see the students dorms. A long line of identical buildings of 4 floors each. With a hallway exposed on the façade and doors lining them. The boy's dorms where blue, while the girls got the elegant looking black ones. Between the dorms there were even some clothing stores, shops, and lots of other kinds of business. It was like their own city in the campus.

However the main building of the campus was no other that the left black tower of the Nasod Palace. If seeing it from the sky ship was impressive, standing at its base was breathtaking. It was impossible to see its top from the bottom no matter how much you tilted your head.

Chung remembered the pamphlet he read on his way here. Apparently the tower was called "The sage hall". Almost 90% of it was a library where knowledge accumulated by the Nasods over the centuries was preserved. Not only about them, but about all the living things in Elrios.

"All the freshmen, please come this way," a teacher was shouting as the students got off the buses.

They were lead inside the tower. The black walls housed a comfortable atrium. Red carpets adorned the ground made of wood. There were paintings of important historical figures on the walls. Some signs marked the way to the ceremony room, were all the new students would hear a speech from the principal and other school staff. Chung couldn't help but imagine it would be boring. However, after seeing all that he saw today, everything could be considered that way. He was eager to get to his new room and leave his luggage, but he would have to bear with it a little longer.

The ceremony room was another huge place. Rows of seats stretched in front of a large scenery. Each row higher than the front one, making the entire room spread upwards until the ceiling. Chung recognized Principal Penensio in the scenery. He sat and waited for the speech.

"Dear students, I wish to give you a warm welcome to Empress Academy. Most of you came from all around the globe seeking the knowledge stored in this tower. And let me say that both me and all your teachers welcome you."

The speech went on with Penensio and other teachers boasting about the school installments. Chung was really bored when he saw Ara waving at him. He returned the gesture and eyed the other students. He already saw the Nasods between them, but also noticed some elves, Pongo, and even other humanoid race he'd never seen before. There was a lizardman and a Phoru too.

Penensio left the stage, and his place was taken by a girl. The illumination on the room became darker as a spotlight focused only her. She was a pale, young, silver-haired girl. Chung noticed she was a Nasod when he saw the blue gem on her forehead.

"Freshmen, I bid you welcome to this great Academy. As some of you may know, I am Eve: president of the student council. During the next academic year, all of you will be under my care. You may have lots of questions by now, but don't fret. We, the student council, are always ahead. My staff has all the data necessary for start your year in the Nasod Network. You can access it with your student ID and your password."

The spotlight faded and the lighting returned to its normal state. A rumble was heard on the room as every student was searching their bags. Chung did too, until he pulled a sphere from inside. The sphere illuminated as if Chung's hands had it activated. It displayed some small squares with words on it. Chung slid his finger along the sphere, rotating the messages on the device until finally stopping. A holographic screen was projected over the device with the words: "Nasod Network" and "Student ID and Password". He entered the requested data and new messages appeared.

"Room 323, Starfall dorm… I see" He mumbled to himself.

"Oh my, is that the Elshard Galactic Five?! I heard it was only available on preorder through the NN."

Chung lifted his head looking above the holo screen to see a redheaded boy, excitedly looking at his device.

"Well, yeah. But I know a guy who could get me one before they were officially sold," Chung said.

"That's neat, man. Preorders are already closed, I hope I can get one on release day at least… Name is Elsword, by the way," The boy said, offering Chung a handshake.

"I am Chung, nice to meet you," Chung said. He was unsure if he should bow or handshake, so he did both at the same time, looking kind of weird.

"Ha ha, don't be so stiff man. Oh, I see you're in the 323, it's amazing, that's my room too!" Elsword said.

Chung didn't say anything about how loud Elsword was, he was actually thankful for his roommate not being a shady guy. A teacher ordered all the students to head to their designated rooms from the Stage. Chung did so, now followed by Elsword. On the way there they talked about how incredible the academy was.

"So, what's your reason to be here? I mean, I've heard your name before, pal." Elsword asked once a silence fall between them.

"Oh, I guess it was silly to expect nobody to know about me huh?" Chung replied.

He was quite amazed. Since he was prince of Hamel, almost everyone who knew about him would freak out and start acting all weird. Something that Chung never appreciated. However this Elsword guy not only was acting cool, he even dared to call him by such informal names.

"My family is testing me. My parents always hired private teachers at my house, but last year my father decided I should get out on my own for a while so I can learn how the world works outside the castle," Chung said.

It was true, he was sent there to become an adult. He would have to live on his own. No daddy credit card, no bodyguards, no calling for the head maid every time the food didn't taste good. Chung was actually up to the task, feeling all excited about not being controlled all the time by his parents.

"Well, I'm here because of pops too. I will become a great Red Knight, but he insists I must go through this whole academy thing," Elsword added, resting his hands on his nape. "He said something about being able to master the pen and the sword. To put it simply, he doesn't want me being an idiot."

"Shouldn't you take it more seriously? I heard this academy standards are crazy high. How did you get in here?" Chung asked.

"Merits. You know? Everyone here is either a genius or they have achieved some kind of feat that allowed them to enter. Also, don't expect anybody bowing because you're the prince. Remember the Nasod girl who gave the speech earlier? She's Empress Eve. So it's kind of normal to have famous people around here," Elsword said.

After a while walking they finally reached the Starfall dorm. They walked their way to their room. It was on the 3rd floor, not too afar from the shared kitchen. They entered and left their luggage. The room wasn't small. There was enough place for two beds, a pair of desks, a big drawer with its inside divided in two chambers and a small bathroom. They found a sheet of paper hanged on the window.

"Please, discuss with your roommate and select up to three additional commodities from the list." Elsword said as he read the note.

The list went from a TV to a piano or other kind of things. It would take time to decide it though. There was another note on each desk, this time Chung read it.

"Attention students, select your desired electives and fill the next form to enroll. Hand it to the student council before classes start."

"Oh right, we get to choose a bunch of optional stuff to study," Elsword said jumping into his desk.

Chung went through the list. There were some oddly specific subjects, like oleo painting or ballet dancing. His sight stopped at the "Military training" one. He was always interested in guns and weapons, so that was kind of a safe choice. The form said he could choose up to three additional subjects. He continued the list and stopped in the "marksmanship" one. He remembered his father making fun of his poor aiming with the cannon so he also chose it. For his last subject he just went with one of the foreign languages.

"Well, I'm going to turn in mine, do you want me to take yours, too?" Chung asked as he was leaving the room.

Elsword just tossed his form at him with a thumb up. Chung left the room. The forms included a direction for turning them in. He was distracted reading Elsword's form and didn't notice there was someone in front of him until he crashed into him.

"Hey kid, watch where the hell you're going," The guy said in a rather aggressive tone.

In front of Chung there was an older student. He was wearing the school uniform but it looked a bit worn out. He had also a armlet with the words "willpower" and "strength" written on it. But what was more noticeable of said guy, was his left arm, made out of metal. Chung didn't see a core on the guy, so he must be a human.

"Raven, don't start bullying the newbies already" A girl shouted, coming in.

It was a red-haired girl, Chung thought he recognized her. She was also wearing the school uniform with the same armlet. However she also wore a black long coat with the bottom burnt. And she was also carrying a wooden sword.

"This brat just ran into me, Elesis. I guess this year rookies aren't disciplined yet." Raven said.

Chung just waited there, not very sure if he should leave or stay.

"Leave him alone or you will be the one getting a disciplined."

A new girl joined the scene. She was shorter than Chung and was not wearing the school uniform. She wore a black mini skirt with fishnet tights, a black pair of enormous boots and a purple t-shirt with the picture of a fat bat. She covered the t-shirt with a black vest. Chung noticed another armlet on her left arm, this one was red and bore the words "Student Council" on it.

"Humph… the queen's war hound is here huh? Alright, we'll leave this guy for now," Elesis said, gesturing to Raven to move away.

"Don't worry freshman, those delinquents won't harm you if you don't actually offend them."

"Thank you… hum…"

"Aisha, I am the student council vice-president. "

Chung repeated his thanks with a bow; Aisha just smiled and took the forms.

"I'll take care of this; you can go back to your room. Tomorrow is your first day, I suggest you have some rest."

Chung thanked her again before leaving. The encounter with those delinquents was quite unexpected. He remembered Elsword words about everyone here being important. Were those two also important people? Anyway, he just headed back, found Elsword already sleeping and decided to do that, too.


	2. Chapter 2

First day of class turned out to be a rainy day. The water splashed against the windows, drawing beautiful curved lines across them as it slid down. Inside one of the tower’s classrooms a young boy was staring outside. Everyone in class was bored since their teacher was late. He stopped looking outside to check his pen for the umpteenth time. He felt a prod on his back and looked that way to find his friend. A small, cheerful girl.

“Ciel, the teacher is not coming, let’s go to the club already.” She said.

“Calm down, everyone else is also in class so nobody will be there, Lu.” He answered.

Lu just pouted at that answer and tried to leave the class on her own. But the teacher came in when she was nearing the exit. They looked at each other for a moment before Lu quickly realized she would get angry. She said she was going to the bathroom.

“Wait until I introduce myself.”

The teacher was a small … girl? She looked younger than almost all the students. She has light pink hair and pink eyes. There was also a pink colored core on her forehead. She wore the teacher uniform with such elegance despite being so small that it created an intimidating aura.

“I am sorry about my late arrive. Unexpected circumstances have occurred on the way here. As some of you may already know, I am Professor Apple. I will be your history teacher for the year.”

As the teacher bowed to her students, they stood up and returned the bow.  
“I want to congratulate all of you for successfully advancing to your second year in this academy.”

The praise was received with joy and happiness by the class. They were second year students. Their uniform now had two stripes showing their rank. They all knew how hard they worked to be there.

“And so I am assuming you are already aware that this academy is not for time-wasters. With that said, we will have an exam right now.”

The joy turned grim all of a sudden. There were groans and jeers.

“Do not worry my pupils; this is only going to be an oral test with short questions. I want to assess how much all of you are capable of.”

She sat behind her desk and opened a bock. Everyone had already settled down, knowing she won’t stop no matter how much they complain. After a while she looked ready and stood up again, placing herself in front of the desk and leaning against it.

“Alright, the young boy by the 3rd window, please say your name.”

“It is Ciel, Madame.”

“Ciel, what was the last worldwide war before the demon invasion?” She asked.

“It was the Nasod and human war. The Nasods fought claiming to be freed from human exploitation as well as for securing energy sources vital for them.” He answered.

“That is correct. Young girl behind him, would you care to say your name.”

“Luciela Sourcream,” She said in a pompous tone.

“Luciela, how did such a war come to an end?” Apple asked again.

“Hum… a notorious human made a discovery that allowed to create huge amounts of energy without using El. He shared such technology with the Nasods over the condition they negotiate peace with the humans.”

“And what technology was that… You: the girl trying not to be seen. Say your name and answer.”

“It’s Rose, Madame… The technology that allowed that was called nuclear fusion.”

“That is right. As I hope all of you know, peace between Nasod and humans was achieved after that. With time, the old scars from the war disappeared, and the Nasod and humans started cooperating with each other. You there, the elf lady; state your name and answer: What was the most important event that marked the history 470 years ago?” Apple asked.

“My name is Rena. It was the signing of the Elrios Treaty. A document that the Nasods and humans made. It acknowledged the Nasods’s liberty and autonomy as well as the conditions for the peace. It was the treaty that allowed both societies to merge and ultimately flourish into the civilization we are today.”

The class continued for a while with the teacher shooting questions at the students. There weren’t able to answer all of them correctly but they still managed to somehow make their teacher happy.

“I see, I guess you will produce acceptable results this year as well. But remember to not grow idle, or else you will embarrass yourselves once the finals arrive,” Apple said.

Finally the bell rang, marking the end of the first period classes. Empress academy scheduled its classes so there will be three hours of classes and one hour of break, for a total of six hours of daily class. Fortunately that also means that there weren’t any classes at all during the evening. Evenings were usually used for club activities.

“Let’s go to the club,” Lu said, lifting her fist and leading the way.

She happily made her way from the class to the north area of the tower. Where almost every club was based. She entered without knocking through one of the many doors that lined both walls. Ciel and a group of students following her.

The door leaded to a big room, with an scenery in one of the sides, and a lot of props lying everywhere. Some costumes and outfits stacked on the tables and lots of papers over any surface. They slowly started getting everything in place.

“It’s just how we left it last year,” Lu said, taking a deep breath.

“President, shall we continue practicing that play we were going to do last year?” A member asked.

“Of course. We’ll do it this time.”

They were practicing a famous play called “The last Hamel knight”. It was about a Hamel soldier that was left behind enemy lines and managed to survive clinging only to the hope of seeing his family again. Ciel played as the Hamel knight, while Lu was the antagonist: A demon succubus who wanted to capture and torture him.

Since the day was so rainy, any club that needed to perform outside activities was dismissed for the day. That left Rose a bit down.

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll do extra work tomorrow,” Rena said, approaching her from behind.

“Why don’t we do it in the gym?” She asked back.

“The gym is reserved on rainy days for the sports club. But maybe we could use an empty classroom. Anyway, I have things to do today so…”

Rena left without saying anything more. Rose packed her cheerleader uniform into her bag and decided to go back to the dorms. The rain only got worse as time passed by.

“Attention to all students, it is recommended that you leave now and head to your current dorms before the weather worsens,” The school’s megaphone announced.

The school gate became chaos with everyone trying to leave at the same time. There were stolen umbrellas everywhere, and some students had to run for it trying to use their bags as makeshift cover. All the students headed to the dorms, while the ones that lived outside of campus had to wait for their bus. Ciel grabbed Lu’s hand to run in the rain, even when they were sharing Lu’s umbrella since Ciel’s one got supposedly stolen, they got wet. It was worse when Lu separated to go to her own dorm, while Ciel still needed to walk under the rain a bit more. He refused to keep Lu’s umbrella until tomorrow however.

The boys dorms were the farthest ones from the school. Meaning he got himself drenched on the way there. When he arrived, he found Aisha at the doors, she was writing down who made it to the rooms. She saw Ciel, he was drenched. So much that Aisha allowed him to enter before writing him down. Ciel took the chance to remove his uniform’s blazer. The water soaked him so much that his shirt was basically transparent. Aisha stared at how his clothes stuck to him, highlighting his pecs and abs. Even while being so thin, Ciel was actually quite muscular.

“Like what you are seeing?” Ciel asked, since the vice-president didn’t say anything more.

“Maybe I do. Alright, your name and class…” Aisha said, trying to hide her amazement.

Ciel cleared the info and went to his room. He threw his bag and got changed as soon as possible. The door opened and his roommate came in. It was Raven, he was drenched as well.

“Did you get ogled by the vice-president too?” Ciel asked jokingly.

“What are you talking about?” Raven asked.

He laughed as he started removing his drenched clothes from the ground. He just pushed them into the drawer. Raven did the same thing. After the two of them were set, Raven went to his desk and pulled out of his pocket a bag full of some kind of tobacco.

“Do you want a joint?” Raven asked over his shoulder.

“Nah, I’m not in the mood, but I wouldn’t mind sharing one,” Ciel responded.

Raven skillfully prepared the cigarette. Ciel meanwhile wandered the room feeling anxious. It was kind of boring to not have anything to do. They filled the document asking for a fine TV as well as a gaming console for their room, but those deliveries will take almost a week.

“Here you go, remember to close the curtains,” Raven said, giving the cigarette to Ciel.

“As if someone would rat on us,” He said.

“Normal tobacco could get you grounded, but that thing not only could get you expelled but earn you jail time as well, better be cautious,” Raven said.

Ciel closed the curtains before lighting the joint. He took a good drag. The smoke flew out of his nose and lips as he gave back joint to Raven. It was too early to get high, but since there was nothing else to do. They still were smoking when they heard a knock on the door. They hurried to hid the joint.

“Don’t worry guys, it’s me.”

They felt relieved to hear Lu voice at the other side. Ciel opened the door. Lu was followed by Elesis.

“What are two young and healthy boys like you two doing here at this time of the day?” Elesis asked laughing as she came in.

They let them in the room. Elesis took the free chair from Ciel’s desk while Lu sat between Ciel’s crossed legs. Elesis made a gesture to Raven, who was already preparing some more for the newcomers. Not much later, the room was thick with smoke.

“I bet the smoke is totally noticeable outside,” Ciel said, he had restrained from smoking as much as he could since Lu was there.

Lu always became a lot more clingy when she’s high. She was now with Elesis, they were whispering in a way the boys couldn’t hear.

“You’re right; I’m going to check outside for a bit,” Raven said, truth is: he needed fresh air.  
Raven stumbled on his way out. He was used to that stuff, but it was still kind of funny watching him. Apparently he started smoking as a way to ease the pain from his arm. Elesis looked at him go and said.

“Sorry guys, I have something important to talk about with Raven, I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
Elesis also stumbled on her way out. Lu and Ciel were left alone. It was a chance Lu immediately took. As if Ciel was already waiting for it, he didn’t even surprise when Lu turned around to kiss him. He felt a wave of smoke being pushed into his mouth. They separated their lips and Ciel left out the smoke. He them took a long pull and passed it to Lu as well. For some reason, they would only do that kind of thing while smoking, and when alone.

“Lu, what about a quickie while they are out,” Ciel asked, embracing the little girl.

“Isn’t it too risky?” Lu said, taking another drag and slowly blowing it to Ciel.

Ciel didn’t answer, he pulled the girl closer instead and they laid her on the bed. He swiftly removed the joint from her hand, since the bed he had last year had a lot of burn marks. Lu thought it was funny because it was like keeping a record of it, but Ciel didn’t enjoyed the scolding he got the last year at all. He was lucky they didn’t tell the principal about it.

Rena and Rose were running under the rain. They managed to arrive relatively dry at a convenience store where they were able to buy a pair of umbrellas. None of them expected to have rain, so they didn’t even bring their own umbrellas.

“Well, that settles it. Where were you going?” Rose asked as they left the store.

“That new Fashion store they opened on my dorms commercial section. The year just started and I haven’t had time at all to get ready for it.” Rena answered, grabbing Rose by the hand and dragging her along.

They crossed a small plaza that separated the girl’s dorms from the boys ones. It was decorated with beautiful blue flowers and big trees. However at that time of the year the trees barely had any foliage, letting the rain wet the entire place. Even though there was a road there, the only cars allowed inside the campus was the transport busses and the official and staff cars, so it was totally clear. The commercial section of the dorms was on the lowest floor, under the first floor hallway, creating a roof to stop the rain. Lots of students gathered there either avoiding the rain or just window shopping to kill time. They entered a fashion store called “Divine Fabrics”. It was a only female clothing store, they were already selling winter collection clothes, with an excessive abuse of synthetic fur on every clothe. Apparently that was going to be the fashion this time.

“The only good thing about winter is the clothes, don’t you agree?” Rena asked.

“Actually, I like winter over summer. I just hate the heat.” Rose said.

They spent a lot of time trying on different outfits. Finally Rena bought a pair of green rain boots and Rose a white coat. They were heading out when they saw Raven followed by Elesis.

“Have you heard the rumors about those two going out?” Rena asked.

“I don’t think those rumors are right though, they always look very distant from each other,” Rose answered.

Raven checked the plaza and the smaller streets that surrounded the dorms until finally finding a clear spot. He waited for the redhead to get comfy. She just sat over a bench. Even though it was clearly wet, a single gesture from Elesis hand made all the water evaporate. Raven sat too.

“What did you wanted to tell me?”

“It’s about the next week’s you-know-what,” Elesis said.

“What about it? Are you worried or what?”

“I heard those idiots are going to bring something… dangerous.”

Raven leaned back over the bench’s backrest and gave it some thought.

“Alright, I’ll tell the boys to also be prepared.”

However their conversation was cut when two students appeared. They didn’t realize the presence of the two delinquents speaking on the bench until they were right in front of them. Those two students were Chung and Elsword. Chung let out a gasp when seeing the two seniors on the bench, while Elsword adopted a tense stance.

“You. You’re the two bullies from the other day,” Chung said pointing at them.

“What’s up Hamel prince, Aisha’s not here this time so you should mind your words,” Raven said.

Chung backed away. One thing was that he got bully by his childish appearance, but they knew he was prince of Hamel and still dared to defy him. They should be two really big shots, he thought. Meanwhile Elsword was looking at Elesis, avoiding direct eye contact.

“What’s up bro, you don’t need to hide from me. It’s not like I’m going to do anything to you.” Elesis said to his brother in a blunt tone.

“I-I’m sorry Elesis, we’ll be going now.” Elsword said, hurriedly leaving the place.

“What was that about?” Raven asked.

“That guy is my brother. Be good and don’t bully him, ok?” Elesis said.

They stood and went back to the room. They found Ciel and Lu passed out on the bed. For one moment they were scared that the drugs had them done, but apparently they were napping. Raven gave Ciel a chop for it. Elesis took Lu and returned with her to the dorms.


	3. Chapter 3

Chung was carefully polishing his destroyer the moment Elsword entered the room. He carried a bunch of unhealthy snacks and a big bottle of soda. Once he entered the room he let himself drop on the bed and threw some snacks towards Chung.

“That’s a big gun you’ve got there” Elsword said, eyeing Chung’s cannon.

“It’s comparable to my destroyer in size right?” Chung answered without looking at him.

Elsword jokingly hit him on the back of his head. Chung was usually a lot more relaxed when they were all alone in the room. There’s no way Chung would joke about his manhood and his beloved weapon in one single phrase in any other situation.

“Jokes aside, what are you going to do with it?” Elsword asked.

“Today is my first Military training class. They asked us to bring our personal weapon If we have any.”

“Oh, that explains why you were so excited today.”

Elsword dig through a whole snack bag in mere seconds to Chung amazement. He finished maintenance on his weapon and put it back into the cylinder bag to carry it. Before leaving, he made sure to secure some of the snacks Elsword brought under his bed.

“By the way, the second years told me that class is one time only. I guess there’s not much to learn about being a soldier. But that also means that all students are in the same class despite their academic year.” Elsword said.

“I see; I hope I don’t get stuck with any weird senior them.” Chung said, waving his hand as he left the room.

He left the dorms in quite a rush. Truth is, he didn’t knew were the class was going to be celebrated, so he was checking the schedule on his Elshard when he hit something. He lifted his head to see, and regret seeing; he ran into Raven. Again.

“What is your god damn problem kid? Not once but twice?!” Raven asked quite annoyed.

“I am sorry, I was checking where military training is being held and…”

“Yeah, excuses and more excuses… Follow me if you’re going to that class and stop being an idiot.” Raven said giving a rather hard push on the freshmen back.

Chung realized that Raven wasn’t wearing his uniform, he was wearing a weird black suit that hugged his body. A long white coat draped over the suit. More importantly, he carried a long sword sheath on his belt.

“Are you attending military training too?” Chung asked.

“Why would I be guiding you if I wasn’t?” Raven replied.

For the rest of the jog Chung didn’t said anything more. After a little while walking they reached a bus stop inside the campus. A row of students were making a line. Every one of them was carrying a weapon or some sort of device. None of them was wearing the school uniform and that made Chung feel kind of weird for being the only one doing so.

“Don’t worry about it, newbie; they’ll lend you a recruit uniform once we are there.”

“Are we going outside the campus?” Chung asked.

“You’ll see once we are there.” Raven answered before getting in line.

They were called by name and rode the bus. It wasn’t a long trip. They exited the campus and headed south. Once the buildings became shorter the bus stopped. They arrived at a skipper station. Roll was called before they boarded the skipper.

The skipper was a small sky ship designed to transport small groups of people over small distances. They took off from the station and flew over Altera. Fifteen minutes later they landed on a small floating island that was situated in the south shore of Altera, a few meters under it.

“We are now below Altera’s sky level. If you don’t know about it shrimp, sky level equals to sea level in floating Islands.” Raven said to Chung as they stood up.

“Yeah, I knew about it, but thanks anyway.” Chung said, without obtaining any response.

They disembarked. The small island was totally occupied by what looked like a training camp. There were obstacle courses, firing ranges and other kind of facilities. A man wearing a full red commander suit came closer. He was taller than any student and had many scars adorning his face. He wore a serious look all the time.

“Attention, all students salute instructor Edan!” The man who accompanied the students shouted.

Most of the students didn’t know what to do exactly, so they just formed a line and waited for the man in red to speak.

“Alright maggots. You are here to learn the way of the soldier and for nothing more else. In the three months this subject lasts I will teach you how to obey your superior orders. That goes without saying that I don’t want to hear about any of you slacking off or acting smart.” Edan said.

He looked at the students faces.

“Here you have to say Yes Sir!” Edan said before heading to a big building in the field.  
The students followed him without a word. He was quite the oppressive teacher.

“Now get in there and grab a uniform or a weapon if you don’t have anything suitable.”

Chung walked into a big basketball court with tables occupying the sides of the play area. There were uniforms and various weapons lying in them. From swords to guns including magical wands and staffs. He grabbed the uniform; it was just a green pair of pants and a white t-shirt with heavy boots. There wasn’t anywhere to get changed and since he was the only one wearing the uniform he just looked for a hidden place beneath the stands to get changed.

Once everyone was ready, Edan lead them to the obstacle course. It was composed of a tall wall with a rope hanging, a big pond of dark water, a bunch of barbed wire near the ground right above the mud and a lot more of weird contraptions.

When Edan was about to start he was interrupted by some of the students suddenly whistling and complimenting someone. When Chung was able to see who was the one causing the ruckus he got his arm pulled by Raven. The look of the senior was enough to make him stay in line instead of getting distracted.

The receiver of the cheers was a girl, probably as young as the younger students; who was wearing a white adjusted suit that hugged her skin making her look nude from afar. As she came closer, Chung saw a blue core on her forehead and some pink stripes that ran across the suit and some estrange gears floating behind her back. The newcomer glared at the students who were whistling at her, which made every one of them freeze instantly. For some reason that Nasod gave out a deadly aura.

“And this Nasod you see here is mistress Q, she will be taking care of the experienced recruits, so if any of you already have any kind of experience in this matter, please follow her” Edan said.

Some students separated from the group and left with her, while others groaned in disappointment.

“Hey, that one never held a weapon before.” One of the remaining students said.

“Enough chatter. We are going to see how much of a soldier you are right now. You will face the obstacle course, and you better get a good time out of it!” Edan shouted.

The recruits were placed at the start, right under the tall wall with the rope and Edan let them start the course by turns. It wasn’t as bad as Chung thought earlier. Most students were able to complete it as if it wasn’t so different from a normal P.E. class. Chung noticed how Raven easily completed the course even before the two students that started before him. He was incredibly fast and really strong. On the tall wall he skipped half of it with a single jump before grabbing the rope. Jumping over the puddle was like a game for him. It was quite formidable seeing him ace the test so easily. It actually inspired Chung a little. He only did military training at home, the house servants being his partners they never were too exigent on the little prince. However, it was weird for Chung to think that guy with such skill usually spend his days bullying people for fun. He looked at his senior face, it brimmed with determination. Almost like he placing his own life on the rope, even thought it was just a class exercise.  
Half an hour later everyone had their turn. Edan gathered the students with the results. He looked at them once before going back to his notebook.

“Ok, the time is not as bad as I was expecting, good job. However let’s get serious.” Edan said before going back to the course’s start and shouting.

“Now I want you to repeat this test carrying your weapon of choice, and you will repeat it until you match your previous results or collapse from exhaustion. No complaints, get moving now!”

There were some groans and complaints though, Raven looked around, almost all students carried a suitable weapon, then he spotted the junior he was looking for. Chung had already placed his huge cannon on his back. It did so with a weird harness he carried with the cannon. It looked durable and the carrier didn’t seem too bothered with the supposed weight of the gun. However Raven knew it would be troublesome.

Edan gave Chung the sign to start and the former quickly grabbed the rope hanging on the wall and started climbing it. It was going fine until he reached half the wall. The cannon was swinging around so much that Chung found it difficult to keep stable on the rope alone. To make it worse every time the cannon hit the wall the impact made Chung slide down a bit centimeters.

“That thing must be light for a Hamelian like yourself but remember that it’s still on your back!” Edan shouted seeing the student struggle to keep his weapon in place.

Chung had no choice but to step down and secure the cannon on the harness better. But it was no use since his own movements swayed the cannon, making the climbing a pain again. He tried to use his legs against the wall as a way to keep it more balanced, but that made the rope break, making both the cannon and gunner fall.

“Get back up and find another way.”

Chung stared at the wall. It could be easy to pass over if he fired a round beneath him to propel himself, the recoil of the cannon was more than enough to launch them.

“Need some help?”

Raven was standing now next to him. Also a little queue has formed since the rope broke. Surprisingly enough Raven lifted the cannon with his mechanical arm without effort. Chung never thought he would know a human other than a Hamelian knight who could be able to lift the cannon. Raven then tied the remains of the rope around the cannon and offered the other end of the rope to him. Chung grabbed it quite perplexed and then Raven launched the cannon with his Nasod arm. The cannon passed over the wall and fell on the other side, acting as counterweight for the rope. Being so heavy itself, it lifted the two of them effortlessly. Being pulled up by the rope until passing over the wall themselves. They landed at the other side, were the cannon was lying over cracked ground.

Chung thanked Raven and continued the test. Next was the pond jump, it was easy for him since he was already used to jump with the cannon. Crawling under barbed wire however proved to be ridiculously hard. The cannon would get tangled on the wire if he carried it on his back, but carrying it at his side caused the mud to stuck to it keeping it from moving. It took only 5 minutes for him to traverse the ten meters the barbed wire covered.

“Alright everyone, let’s end it here today. After all, the course had been broken.” Edan said, giving Chung a condescending look.

They gathered their belongings and waited for Mistress Q’s group to arrive. When they arrived, Chung saw that Mistress Q wasn’t wearing her weird suit; she was in her teacher uniform instead. The few students that followed her were in horrible conditions. They were covered in sweat that a clearly visible trail of sweat ran from their necks to their pants. And Chung even thought that there was a student missing.

“Student Patterson had to go to the infirmary due to a minor lesion on the ankle.” Mistress Q stated after arriving.

“Damn it Q; I told you to be easy on the rookies.” Edan said to his colleague.

“I only ordered them to proceed with the appropriated training considering their ages, genders, weights and heights.” Mistress Q responded.

After returning the uniform and getting his clothes back, Chung and the entire class went back to the skipper. The way back to school went without incidents, except for the huge traffic jam that stalled them for about an hour. A lot of cars angrily sounding their claxons to a lorry that just got stuck on a turn.

“I never thought you would take a class seriously” Chung said to his senior Raven seeing the traffic would take a lot to clear.

“You call that being serious? It was just child’s play.” Raven answered, resting his arms on his nape.

“You could have left with Mistress Q group.”

“Hah, after seeing the ones that went after her it’s clear that I did well staying.”

Some other students on the bus were also chatting. Chung picked up a theme that seemed to be repeating a lot. Something about the expedition.

“Raven, do you know what they are talking about?” Chung asked, lowering his voice.

“What, you didn’t know? Why did you sign up for this class?” Raven asked “The expedition is what we will be doing at the end of the semester. The class will be separated in two groups. The ones with the best results will board one of the Nasod sky battleships while the other one will get stationed on a ground base. And we will be visiting the demon war frontline.”

“A Nasod Sky battleship?!” Chung asked.

“Yup, so a lot of people are excited about it since they could be picked to be part of the Nasod Navy on the future. While the ones that will get stranded on ground… well… let’s say they will spend the whole expedition peeling potatoes.”

“Wait, so you are interested in joining the Navy?” Chung asked.

“That’s… none of your business little man.”

After saying that, Raven turned on his side and slept. Chung was puzzled about it. That guy wanting to join the army is something he would have never imagined before. But he also was excited now. A Nasod Sky battleship. The zenith of nowadays technology. He couldn’t wait. Back at Hamel his father wouldn’t let him ride such a war machine on his own. He was glad he was not at home anymore.

It was already night when they arrived at the dorms. Chung was thankful that tomorrow was Saturday. He was already heading for his room when Raven called him.

“Hey, kid, why don’t you come with me for a drink?”

Chung hesitated. Raven was a bit rude to him the first time they meet. And even when he was acting so friendly today, he felt like it was kind of weird.

“I don’t know, is already too late.”

“Oh, don’t be so lame and just come if you want.”

Chung decided to follow him. They walked to the canteen, situated between a clothes store and a mobile shop on the lower floor of the dorms. Chung spotted Elesis and some other guys who were apparently waiting for him.

“What’s this? Did you pick up a puppy on your way here?” Elesis say mockingly when she saw Chung.

“Nah, this guy here is cool, he survived today drills so at least give him a shot.” Raven said.

They all got inside and walked to the darkest place. Situated on the most remote corner from the door. The waitress didn’t take their order, she directly brought some glasses and a big bottle of transparent liquid that Chung doubted was water.

“I thought students weren’t allowed to drink.” Chung said nervously.

“We have an agreement with the bar owner. We keep the scum away and they let us do as we please.”

He couldn’t help but think that the scum was actually them. But preferred not commenting on it since he was sat with them.

Elesis started filling the little glasses with the unlabeled bottle and placed one right in front of Chung. He had never drank before, but in his mind his responsibility was fighting with his teenage curiosity. He just thought that a single one wouldn’t hurt, and downed it the same way Raven just did.

It was like swallowing a sip of fire. The fluid burned his throat and caused his insides to twist.  
“Hey newbie, you’ll end really bad if you try to imitate this old dog here.” Elesis said laughing out loud while patting Raven in the shoulder.

Chung just gave back a nervous smile. He was already regretting accepting the invitation when Elesis placed a refilled glass in front of him.

“Take it slowly this time.”

It was quite vexing for him since everyone was staring at him while he slowly sipped the glass. It was like if he were a little kid. The mood lighted up as they drank, Chung kind of let aside the alcohol for the night. He was listening to the crazy stories the guys were telling.  
“Don’t believe them. They are just trying to impress Elesis to do you-know-what tonight.” Raven said, leaning against Chung with a lower voice.

“There’s something I would like to ask you.” Chung said, after turning his sight away from the wooers. “Why did you invite me tonight? I mean…”

“You want to know why I’ve been nice to you today? Well, I don’t have any interest on picking on weaklings you know?” Raven said, getting back to his seat and closing his eyes as he laid back.

“I’m not a weakling.” Chung said quite irritated.

“Yeah, whatever you say, your majesty.” Raven answered jokingly.

“There’s something more…”

Chung was about to reply when the sound of a glass shattering caught his attention. He looked in the direction of the sound to see a waitress that was looking quite annoyed. She was next to a table of three guys, everyone of them laying their eyes on her.

“Come on, little cuttie, why don’t you stay with us some more.” Said the tallest of them.  
He was holding the girl’s waist, which maybe the reason the glass fell. Chung felt nervous about it, he wanted to do something about her, but someone from his table already stood up and went over there. It was Elesis. She arrived at the table gathering everyone looks.

“What? You want to come to our party too, little girl?” The guy said.

Elesis didn’t responded, she instead launched a fast jab to the molester chin. The hit was strong enough to kick him out of his chair, falling on his back. The other two guys quickly stood up, but Elesis was faster than them, grabbing the empty bottle on the table and smashing one of them on the head with it. He fell back on his seat unconscious. The last one was about to punch Elesis. She evaded one punch, the other one grazed her face and then she grabbed the guy by the collar of his shirt and by his belt with the other hand; threw him over her, falling the guy head-first on the ground. The first guy was getting back to his feet, knife in hand. Elesis reached her wooden sword on her back, and with a fast slung, she hit the man head with it. The sound echoed in the room and a small stream of blood ran across the man face, falling down too.

After that, Elesis came back and ordered the others to drag the molesters outside. Chung was amazed at the girl’s skill to fight, he kind of expected her to be able to fight, but taking down three adversaries at the same time was quite the feat. Also, he couldn’t stop looking into Elesis face, from the moment she first hit that man, she was wearing such a big smile.  
“Well, that’s what our agreement is about little boy.” Elesis said to Chung when she saw him staring so intently.

She took her place back and faced Raven, who was nearly sleeping.

“Hey, don’t you dare sleep through the night already. I have something to tell you about tomorrow.” Elesis said.

“What is it?”

“I’ve been told those bitches from South High are going to bring weapons.” Elesis said, trying to lower her voice. However Chung was still able to hear.

“So what’s the problem? We’ll carry them too.”

She left the discussion at that and downed another glass.

Two hours left, it was already past beyond curfew. Elesis was so drunk she had to be carried. Unfortunately Chung was chose for the task along with Raven. They had to secretly carry her to her dorms without letting anyone see her. They somehow managed since there wasn’t a soul in the streets.

“Are you going somewhere?” A voice called from behind.

Nervous, they turned away, just to find Elsword standing alone in the street.

“Elsword, you scared me.” Chung said annoyed.

“What’s up little one?” Raven said.

They waited for Elesis to say something but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.

“Chung, that guy can carry my sister alone; you should come with me and get to the dorms before the student council found out.”

“Your sister?” Chung asked confused.

Then he realized why he felt like knowing Elesis. She was a lot like her brother.

“He’s right, Chung, just go with him.” Raven said, grabbing Elesis and carrying her on his shoulder.

Chung followed back Elsword to the dorms. In the end he didn’t asked Raven what he wanted to know. But since they would see again next week didn’t paid too much attention to it. He was now more interesting in boasting with Elsword about being able to ride a Nasod Battleship.


	4. Chapter 4

“Today, humanity celebrates the victory the knights of Belder achieved fighting the demons in the south region of Ranox, gaining terrain against…”

The TV was airing a special news report; however nobody in the room was paying too much attention. Ciel and Raven were both sitting on their beds. Raven was leaning against the wall dozing off while Ciel sat with legs crossed. Lu was sitting between Ciel’s legs, with hers bent, giving her a place to rest her head as she listlessly watched TV. There was a faint white smoke floating in the room, as well as a soft scent of weed.

“Hey Raven, you’re going out?” Ciel asked, seeing his roommate getting up.

“I have business with the others today.”

Saying nothing more he left the room, leaving the other two alone. A few minutes tick by before Lu turned off the TV and spun herself to face Ciel. She smiled at him. Ciel saw Lu’s eyes looking at him through half-lidded eyes. A vague smile on her face revealed how high she was.

“Ciel, let’s do that.”

Ciel rolled his eyes, already knowing what that “that” means. He couldn’t say he disliked it, but it was something else that bothered him; something more. Lu rested on his chest waiting for him to answer. He reached the already lit joint that was resting on an ashtray; a forbidden item to have within the dorms walls. He took a long drag. The smooth smoke filled his mouth giving him a warm sensation. He held it in his and leaned towards Lu. She came closer, her lips less than a centimeter away from Ciel’s. He released the smoke in a soft blow, while Lu inhaled it. It was for less than a second, but their lips did touched, neither objected. Lu leaned back letting the smoke flow out of her nose before finally blowing it away. The smoke rose to the ceiling forming a circle and dispersing.

Lu let out a small laugh before snatching the joint from Ciel’s hands and taking a drag. It was Ciel’s turn now. He waited for her to fill her lungs and leaned forward. She came near again. There was a scent in the air that didn’t belong to the weed that Ciel picked up. It was a sweet scent that Ciel easily identified as the fruits shampoo Lu used. Lu lips opened and puffed the smoke at Ciel. She was so near that Ciel could feel the warm of her breath. It was enticing, tempting. He leaned a bit more against her. In the little time that exchange lasted, their lips touched again. Lu pulled back, but Ciel waited in the same position. Lu looked at him waiting for him releasing the smoke. But he instead leaned against Lu. The smoke escaped his lips as he reach for Lu’s. This time they weren’t simply touching. It was an actual kiss. Ciel froze the moment he felt the soft wet lips against his. Unsure of what to do next.

However his chance flew away when Lu suddenly pulled away coughing.

“Damn it, I swallow a bit.” She said between coughs.

Ciel fell back on his mattress. None of this was out of the ordinary. Lu didn’t seem to care about him kissing her. Worse. She didn’t seem to realize that was even a kiss. It was always like that. Every time they were high and alone, she would want to do stuff like that with him. She usually says that it’s more fun, but for Ciel it was started becoming more of a tease, no; a torture. To have access to Lu’s sweet and soft lips yet not to being able to actually kiss her. Or like this time, kissing her, but not receiving. Ciel closed his eyes in frustration about it. He felt a pressure on his chest. Lu was leaning over him.

“Ciel, are you ok? It’d be bad if you sleep right now.” Lu said.

Ciel rose again. He embraced Lu, she expectantly looked at him. This day Ciel wanted to make the same bet than the other days. He got his face close to Lu’s, maintaining eye contact at any moment. He wanted to make sure his intent was clear. Lu still didn’t move an inch. Nothing out of the ordinary. He kissed her.

The kiss was plain, Lu wasn’t resisting it, but she wasn’t reciprocating it either. She merely let her lips be caressed by Ciel. He continued to embrace her until she finally moved her hands to grab Ciel by the wrists and pull away.

“It’s ok to have some fun Ciel, but let’s stop here.” She said, standing up and sitting in Raven’s bed.

Ciel didn’t say anything. He collapsed again in his bed. Not looking at Lu, with his eyes fixed on the roof, he waited for the next thing she was going to say. It was something he already knew, since she would usually say it.

The Elshard on Lu’s pocket made a ringing sound. She quickly pulled it out and an holoscreen displayed a written message.

“Alright, I got to go Ciel. My boyfriend already finished training. It was fun, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And with that she rushed out of the room.

“Why did you even come in the first place?” Ciel asked to himself while he pressed under his eyes, feeling a headache coming on.

“Alright, now it’s your turn to attempt the experiment. Remember what I taught you just now and follow the steps carefully”

A small dog-like creature in a white lab coat presided over chemistry class. His students began rushing to form groups of two or three to reproduce the experiment they just saw. The teacher jumped off his stool and roamed the class with notebook in hand.  
Ciel was standing alone, waiting for someone to join his experiment. Of course it’d be Lu who was the first person who came along.

“So, what did mister bow wow tell us to do this time.” She said as she yawned with a tiny tear showing on the corner of her eye.

Lu wiped a tear and rubbed her eyes sleepily.

“To combine the reactive in the flask A with the catalyst on flask B, and use another reactive to stop the reaction while observing the outcome.” Ciel said.

Lu sighed as she let herself drop on her seat. She looked totally exhausted. Her eyes were also red and her skin looked a bit pale.

“What’s with you today? Are you hungover?” Ciel asked while pouring a flask of blue liquid into a bigger glass.

“Oh nothing it’s just that I couldn’t sleep well.” She asked, averting her eyes.

Grail came close and observed how the experiment was going. Lu tried pretending she was the one observing the outcome by taking some notes about it. She was lucky that Grail didn’t check the notes since she could only manage to make gibberish on the paper.

“You’re really in bad shape. Just go home, I’ll cover you somehow.” Ciel said.

“No, I’m alright, I want to be here.”

It was weird because it literally looked like she would rather be anywhere but the chemistry class. Ciel stared at her. She wasn’t her usual self. Acting lazy and not caring about class was normal on her. But being so quiet and calm was bad news. He wondered if she was ill, or if there was some other problem.

“Mister Grail. I’m not feeling alright. I think I have a migraine. Could I go to the infirmary to get some kind of painkiller?” Ciel asked out loud.

Grail looked at him and without saying anything he motioned for the door.

“Just in case, can my partner accompany me?” Ciel added pointing at Lu.

“Yeah, whatever, just go and don’t waste any time in the hallway.” Grail said before resuming his observation of the class.

The two of them exited the classroom and headed to the infirmary, at least until they were out of sight. They were in the corridor that lead to the fire exit, so there wouldn’t be anyone walking over there. Lu dropped herself against the wall and curled in a ball, hiding her face between her knees. Ciel watched her, waiting for some kind of explanation.

“Did something happen yesterday?” Ciel asked.

“I’m not ready!” Lu shouted.

Ciel flinched. It took a bit for him to realize what Lu was talking about. “Ready for what?” he thought. Lu stared at him as if she was expecting him to say something, then hid her face between the knees again. Ciel tried to recall. He was sure something had to have happened yesterday with her boyfriend. Who was he called again? Lento or something like that. He was a good looking guy with nothing but birds in his head, and a weird strong desire to join the army.

“Did Lento… make you do something?” Ciel asked, carefully choosing his words.

“Ciel. I don’t need you being an idiot, too. He wanted us to do it, what else would it be?” Lu said at the same time she crossed her legs and wrapped her arms around them.

“He didn’t force you into it right?” Ciel asked.

“Of course not. I wouldn’t allow him to do such a thing. But…”

“But?” Ciel asked, leaning against her.

“He’s being an ass about it. He says that if we don’t do it he will break up with me.” Lu explained.

“What the hell? Just toss him away, why do you even bother with-“

“It’s not that I don’t want to do it” Lu interrupted.

Ciel shut up. He couldn’t believe the words that just went out of Lu’s mouth. She wanted it? Ciel was fully aware that Lu never did it with anyone. So did she want to do it with that asshole?

“But I can’t. I’m not ready, and to top it off, he’s just acting stupid. It’s not that a big deal, if he was so desperate he could work himself out in his bedroom…” Lu continued.

“Don’t do it with that guy.” Ciel said.

“Huh? Why not? It’s not like he’s ugly or something…”

“Because I don’t want you to do it with him.”

Lu remained silent. She waited for Ciel to continue, but instead Ciel turned and left.

“Grail said not to take long; lets head back.” He said.

The way back was really awkward. None of the two spoke a single word. Grail looked annoyed by their late arrival so he asked them both to write a report about the experiment instead after class was dismissed. Lu followed Ciel until they reached the entrance; there he headed to the male dorm while Lu went towards the training field. Ciel looked back to see her in the distance, with the light of the sunset he could only see two black figures meeting with each other. He punched a near pillar in a rage fit, catching the attention of Raven who was nearby.

“Hey dude, you ok?” Raven asked getting close to him.

“Heh, of course. Where are all of you going?” Ciel replied.

Right beside Raven, a group of black dressed, threatening students gathered. They all wore a long black coat over their student uniform. They eyed Ciel briefly.

“We have some work to do. Well I guess you’ll be happy since you can spend all evening with that girl.” Raven said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ciel said, turning to leave.

Raven got back at his group at the same time Elesis arrived. Ciel entered the dorms and rushed to his room avoiding everyone in sight. Once there he collapsed on his mattress.

“I have still an hour until she comes here… that’s if she comes today.” Ciel thought to himself.

Elesis lead her group to the main gates of the academy grounds. Everyone walked at a fast pace, looking in every direction, with their hands tucked inside their coats. Upon arriving at the gates, a man dressed in blue uniform stopped them.

“Halt. Where are all of you going?” The man asked.

“We are just going out with our friends.” Elesis answered.

“With so many?” The man asked not convinced.

“I have a lot of friends.” She answered again.

He looked at the group behind her. It didn’t take much to realize they weren’t exactly the friendly looking types.

“Come on man, you’re fucking ruining our weekend. Just step aside and get back to your pointless work.” Elesis said, pushing aside the man.

“Wait! You have to tell me where you will be until you came back.”

The group didn’t answer. They went outside and kept going deep into the city center. The street they were walking along was a wide avenue with a four lane road and a trolley car in the center. They rushed to catch the trolley on the move and occupied the empty seats.

“All right guys. We are going to have a little `chat´ with the trash from South High technical school. I hope you all came prepared for it.” Elesis said looking at the group.

After that she went to the rear and stayed outside. Raven joined her.

“I hope the info you got isn’t made up.” Elesis commented.

“I can assure you it’s not. In about an hour, the gang from South High would met in the abandoned loading stand. After that they’ll be receiving the package.” Raven said, lowering his voice to a whisper.

Elesis punched the railing, bending it.

“Fuck that scum of South High. They not only dare to enter our territory; they want to bring their shit with them!” Elesis said with rage.

“We’ll crush them and kick them out of the neighborhood.” One of the group’s members said, hearing Elesis.

Everyone else agreed. Good thing the automated trolley was empty. They rode it until they reached a street filled with abandoned buildings. That street used to be Altera’s main industry node, but as Altera grew more populated not only by Nasod, the pollution the factories caused was starting to be a problem, so most companies were transferred to the outskirts or the surface. Now all that remained were abandoned sheds with broken crystals. 

This was a hotspot for criminals and poor people alike, so the street wasn’t frequented by normal citizens. Elesis raised her hand and her group split in smaller packs. They knew where they would be, after all; the entire place was one of many playgrounds for Elesis’ gang.

The target was a green painted shed. Not very tall, but surrounded for a large wall that covered a wide area. The place was big to allow heavy transports in and out. Elesis climbed the wall and looked over. There she saw their enemies: the students of the South High technical school. They named themselves “The Banthus bane”. And as if it wasn’t enough with the name, the Banthus guy was a really egocentric guy who was always causing trouble to everyone else. However, it was really weird for people from another school to mess in the affairs of Elesis gang, since every band on the city already learned to fear them.

They were loading some big crates onto a truck that was waiting there.

“Any sign of the providers?” Raven asked from the ground.

“Nope, there are only pigs here.” Elesis answered.

“Lets storm the place then.” Raven said, heading with his group through the main gate.

Elesis followed her friend and made a signal for everyone to enter. They rushed through the unwatched frontal gate at the same time the others jumped over the wall. The Banthus guy’s realize they were being assaulted and left the crates to confront the threat. In mere seconds, a big battle had begun. Students from Empress Academy outnumbered the ones from the South. It was going to be an easy victory, until some reinforcements arrived.

“I see the preppies showed up.” A loud voice called.

Elesis stopped hitting an already defeated opponent to look at the newcomer. It was a tall and very muscular guy. With light brown hair and an eye patch. He was wearing South High uniform, which consisted on a white t-shirt and brown jeans. But to Elesis concern, he was carrying a massive sword like weapon. It looked like a sword sheathed in leather. Not only him, but other students from his group carried other weapons ranging from baseball bats to knives.

“Well, if it’s South High most uncivilized pig.” Elesis responded.

“Get your asses out of here if you don’t want to die, you brats.” He demanded.

“Do you think you’re going to get away with this, Banthus?” Elesis said, right before charging in.

The battle intensified. Elesis allies were also hiding their own weapons under their coats. The leader of South High group targeted Elesis directly. He swung his huge sword fast enough to hit Elesis. But to his surprise Elesis didn’t back away, she threw her fist at Banthus’s face, forcing him to backstep away in time to avoid losing his teeth.

He kept swinging his sword, not allowing Elesis to come near. However she was agile enough to avoid any other hit. She waited for Banthus next swing, and she attacked with a kick, however this time the target was his wrist. Banthus felt a sharp pain in his arm as he dropped the sword. He realized after looking at the place Elesis had hit that his wrist may have been broken.

Elesis didn’t waste time and threw a straight punch to Banthus face, this one connected and throwing him into the ground. She kneeled on top of him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, planting her fist into his face again and again. He tried to move his arms but Elesis legs were right on top of them. Elesis was so distracted with his face, that she didn’t see another student charging against her, knocking her on the ground. The student however was immediately caught by Raven’s mechanical claw, and thrown with enough force to fly a great distance before crashing into a wall.

Elesis got up and went back at Banthus, he was already up and this time was able to defend himself, landing a well placed punch to Elesis’s jaw. It didn’t stopped her for long, since she returned fire, burying her fist into Banthus’s gut. He keeled over in pain just to let Elesis grab him around the neck and knee him on the chest making him fell on his knees. Elesis took the chance to elbow him on the back.

Banthus dropped on the ground to be kicked by Elesis. His fellow fighters fleeing after seeing their leader defeated.

“Alright, that’s it for you.” Elesis said, wiping the blood from her mouth.

She said that, but everyone remaining there was in really bad shape. She herself had a cut in her lips and a bleeding nose. She let her group catch their breaths for a while. Banthus lied there, half conscious.

“Ok, lets grab the loot and zoom out.” Elesis shouted.

They all got the crates and started opening them. Elesis was excited about seeing the contents until Raven finally was able to tore the crate open with his claw. The content was nothing but a lot of pirated DVDs.

“What the fuck is this shit?” Elesis said, looking at the other crates just to see similar contents.

She rushed to Banthus and turned him face up with a kick.

“You, scumbag; where is the wine?” Elesis shouted at him.

He didn’t answer. Only then Elesis realized.

“Shit, we got tricked!” Elesis said.

They leaved everything there, included Banthus; and rushed back to the academy. They didn’t ride the trolley this time. They were walking at such fast pace that everyone in the street had to move aside for them to pass. They were fixing their injuries on the move using a variety of health potions. Soon they stood in the Academy gates, only to found a pair of students. Elesis told her group to go to the dorms without her, and went to approach the two persons waiting. They were Aisha and Eve. The sub-president and the president of the student council.

“Good evening ladies.” Elesis said as she approached them.

“Cut the shit talk, grunt.” Aisha said.

Elesis stared at her surprised. Aisha’s bad mood was famous amongst the students, however, next to her, Eve just stared at Elesis with a perfectly balanced face. She wasn’t sure if Eve was angry, happy or bored. Most likely the last one, giving her lack of words.

“Are you going to explain yourself or what?” Aisha pressed the redhead.

“Well, we just happen to got caught in a bar fight.” Elesis said casually.

“Please”

This time it was Eve who was talking. Both of them shut up.

“Do not bother making up excuses. We have proof that you and your so called friends were in a gang fight on the abandoned sheds of the old factory street.”

Eve accusation was everything Elesis needed to resign herself. She had learned the hard way that the president was relentless on disciplining students. Somehow, she was able to avoid getting caught until today. To make it worse, since she was the president of the student council and a very important person in Nasod society, the amount of power and control she held over the school was huge. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that her words weighed more than the principal’s.

“Such actions are extremely dangerous for your health and your friends. If you wish to uphold our school superiority over the uncivilized pigs of South High…”

Both Elesis and Aisha froze at Eve’s rude way of talking about the other school.

“…you could just exceed in our monthly sports competitions.”

“Oh, you’re right. O your highness! I won’t do it again.” Elesis responded, already walking away.

“Not so fast!” Aisha shouted.

Elesis stopped annoyed, she could be let off the hook if it weren’t for `Miss Rotenmeyer´.

“I am sorry to announce that you ought to be punished for your actions. Since you not only endangered your friend’s well-being, but the schools name too; I order you to make sure that the School Tower lower walls are free from those tasteless paintings.”

She was referring to the graffiti some members of her gang had made.

“You are free to ask for your friends help on the task.” Eve finally said.

Without anything else, she left, followed by Aisha. Elesis sighed, she was actually lucky that the punishment wasn’t worse. She went back to the usual pub, where she knew she would find Raven.

“It looks like the wine wasn’t there to begin with.” Raven said.

“I wonder who the hell took it.” Elesis added.

The wine they were talking about was the famous Elum wine. Even though it was called wine, it didn’t came from grapes. It was a mixture of different type of El stones combined with some secret material. What made it so special was their incredibly stimulating effect and it’s hallucinatory capacities, along with the fact that it was actually not dangerous for the health, unlike any other drug.

Some years back it was available in every bar in town. However, even if the drink alone wasn’t dangerous; the people who drank it were a threat. Due to the stimulating, hallucinatory effect, they would usually end up causing trouble, so the Nasod government banned its consumption. Still, the drink was harmless to Nasods, and they even claimed it was good for them to have. So they applied a restriction to its consumption, only allowing Nasods to buy and drink it. Due to this, it turned into a luxury item that only rich Nasod could afford. That was the reason a lot of people wanted to smuggle it.

It was their original goal to steal it, but now the wine was gone, and they were caught by the student council. Such bad luck Elesis couldn’t believe it.

Ciel stared at the ceiling. He reached for his Elshard in his pocket. It was a beautiful star shaped crystal that displayed a holoscreen floating in front of him. He quickly browsed through his contacts until reaching Lu. Then he typed a message, pausing before finally sending it. He remembered when he got that Elshard; it was a very exclusive limited edition, only available to buy at Hamel on launch day. It was also expensive as hell, and Ciel really liked it the first time he saw it, but he couldn’t even afford it. And just some weeks later, on his birthday, Lu gave him a cute envelop that contained such precious Elshard inside.

A knock on the door put him out of his thoughts, he rushed to the door at the same time he looked at the clock. “Crap” He thought to himself. Lu had arrived and he hadn’t sent her the message. Trying to feign not being at home wouldn’t work since she knew he would be here so he just resigned and went to open the door. However he wouldn’t expect who he found. It was Lu, as always, but this time a tall guy was behind her.

“Ciel, this is Lento. I hope you don’t mind I invited him over but I guess I should introduce you two.”  
Ciel did his best to put a fake smile on his face when welcoming Lento in. He got back at his bed while Lu and her boyfriend occupied the other one. There was a thick silence, then Ciel turned on the TV to try and break the ice.

“Today, a group of students from the South High Technical School were found badly hurt on the ruins of an old shed. The police suspects of another gang fight…”

They listened to the TV for a while before Lento finally spoke.

“So you’re Lu best friend huh?”

Ciel merely looked back at him and nodded. What a lame way of asking it. Lento looked like he wanted to say something more, but then his own Elshard rang. Lento quickly picked it up and walked out of the room to talk.

“Ciel, be more polite to him!” Lu yelled at him once her boyfriend was outside.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Well, that’s also pretty mean and you know it.”

Their little discussion was cut when Lento entered the room again, he looked like he was in a rush.

“I’m sorry Lu, it was the captain, they need me as soon as possible in the training field.”

Lu looked really disappointed as she watched him gather his belongings and exit the room.

“But I guess I’ll be finished by tonight. I’ll give you a call when I’m done and we can still meet as planned.”

Lento leaned to whisper something on Lu’s ears that Ciel couldn’t hear. Whatever it was made Lu giggle and turn red. She whispered something back and then bid farewell to Lento with a kiss.

“So, you’re still having trouble with that…?” Ciel asked once Lento left.

“Well, I think that I will be ok. He told me the higher ups had their sight on him and that he could be promoted into the army soon.”

Ciel didn’t care, even though it was incredible news for a student to be promoted into the army so soon. He got up from his bed and faced Lu.

“I said earlier I didn’t want you doing it with him.” Ciel said.

“I am sorry Ciel, but it’s not for you to decide.” Lu answered.

Ciel turned his back at her. The thought of it dancing in his mind was driving him crazy by now.

“Besides, why do you insist on me not doing it with him?” Lu asked.

“He’s an idiot, you said so yourself. And also, he would only last one month, two at best; as your boyfriend. Right like everyone else before him did.” Ciel answered.

“That’s not a reason to not give him a chance.” Lu insisted.

Ciel didn’t say anything more. He wandered the room before finally stopping by the window. He watched as a group of students fought over a discounted piece of clothing in one of the shops.

“Ciel… why don’t you tell me the actual reason?” Lu asked.

“What actual reason? I already told you.” Ciel said.

“Right… Well, I guess it’s better if I head home, then.” Lu said, exiting the room.

What was I thinking… Ciel thought to himself. Saying such things in front of Lu just to satisfy his inner envy. The actual reason he wouldn’t want Lento, or any other men. The truth was that he actually loved her. He wasn’t sure when it started, but he knew that every time Lu would come up with a boyfriend, he would feel his insides contorting. He was afraid that any of those guys could take Lu away from him forever. And yet he was still unable to convey his feelings, scared of the outcome. He was just happy with what he already had; the company of his loved one, a stolen kiss once in awhile, and a lot more. He was just lazy. Maybe if he even asked Lu out earlier they could be dating by now. He blamed himself for it until he fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

A pure electrical sound pulsed at the rhythm of the blue lights that illuminated the otherwise dark room. A huge dance floor made of color changing tiles adorned the center of the night club situated outside the walls of the academy. It was on a street named the Pier, even though it was far away from the sea. The place was the main attraction to tourist and party lovers alike, being the center of all nightlife in Altera. Said club was known as the Nasod Whim, and it was as full as ever. The place was also known by the Island school gangs as a neutral ground. And with that in mind, Elesis arrived followed by her comrades.

The light blue lights alternated with black ones, making every movement hard to see. Elesis crossed the dancing floor and headed to the stairs in the back which lead to an upper area where one could see all the people on the club. This was the VIP area. The man guarding the door let Elesis and two of her friends through. Meanwhile Raven decided to pay a visit to the bar with his guest.

“Are you having fun?” He asked taking a sip from his beer.

“It’s even better than I was told.” Chung answered.

The young prince was invited over by Raven to “get used to the island culture.” The truth was that Raven wanted to convince him in joining the gang. However Chung was more interested in the club than listening to Raven. His eyes darted from one detail to another. He didn’t even taste his drink.

“Don’t you have clubs like these in Hamel?” Raven asked.

“Yeah, there are some but Father would never allow me to go to one.” Chung said, facing the bar and looking at his glass.

It was a blue liquid floating over a black one. Somehow the two fluids weren’t mixing at all.

“That’s called an oil refill.” Raven said, and seeing Chung’s face he added: “Don’t worry, it’s not actual oil, it’s vodka and lemon soda separated with something called… huh…”

Raven didn’t finished explaining when Chung took a sip of it. It was a weird taste, the blue part numbed his tongue and the dark one scratched his throat. He made a weird face after swallowing, earning a laugh from Raven.

“All right, let’s get you something more soft.”

“Am I going to drink more?” Chung asked.

Raven didn’t answer, instead he searched for the waitress. A beautiful blonde girl wearing a small top that revealed her navel made her way to them.

“Hi Rose, how’s work?”

She let out a sigh and gestured as if she was being hanged by the neck.

“The boss said that I have to attend the whole bar alone today. I don’t know what that bastard is thinking but there are just too many people here for one person.” She complained.

“Well, I’m sorry for hearing that, get the boy here something that he could drink.”

Rose looked at Chung before turning back and choosing from the wide collection of bottles on the shelves. She came up with a green and white cocktail.

“Is that even drinkable?” Chung asked.

“Don’t complain boy, this will grow some hair in your chest.” Rose said.

“Weren’t you going to give me something softer?”

Raven laughed and continued chatting with the waitress. Despite having so many people waiting, Rose indulged herself in a long chat with Raven, that she would only interrupt to hand some quick drinks.

Upstairs, Elesis sat across a table. She was in a premium balcony, with glass walls that slightly muffled the music. In front of her was a huge man, his face covered in bandages. Two grunts flanked his sides. His appearance didn’t exude much of a friendly aura at all.

“I’m asking you again, what did you do with the cargo?” Elesis asked at the man in front of him.

“Even if you ask, what you saw is all we know of.” The man answered.

The air was tense. The bodyguards Elesis brought looked like they would jump at the slightest pin drop.

“Banthus, don’t you dare treat me as a dumb back alley bully. Are you seriously telling me that you risked your men’s lives just to get your hands on some stupid DVDs?” Elesis asked, leaning forward on her chair.

“Of course not, you retarded bitch.” Banthus answered.

After looking at each other for a while, Elesis convinced herself that nothing could be learned from that conversation. She stood up and headed out without saying a word.

“Why do I even bother?” She wondered as she left to meet with Raven and company.

The conversation with Rose already made some of the clients angry, so she couldn’t help it but get back to work. Elesis updated Raven on the situation. Meanwhile, Chung was being hit by another girl that just appeared.

“Hey, handsome, why don’t you came along and give us some company?” She said as she pointed at her friend.

Chung recognized the person she was referring to. It was Ara. She was wearing a black minidress with a short skirt and a lace pattern on the sleeves. She smiled at Chung as he approached.

“Re-Rena, I told you not to do that… last time you got us mixed up with a shady bunch.”

Rena laugh it off. She was wearing an impressive black sleeveless dress with a semitransparent window on the front that revealed her skin from the neckline all the way to the belly button.

“Don’t worry dear, I know these guys.” Rena answered pointing at Raven and Elesis.  
She went to meet with her friends, leaving both Ara and Chung alone. It was then that Chung realized this might be one of those times where you have to do what you have to do. 

The words of his father, the King, echoed in his mind, Chung would always feel embarrassed when he talked with his father about girls, but for once all that knowledge could come in handy.

“That’s a nice… uh… a nice dress.” Chung said stuttering a little.

“Oh, thank you. I’m not really used to these kinds of places so I didn’t know what to wear.” Ara replied gingerly.

So far so good Chung thought in his mind.

“I’m a newcomer to this, too. Raven just invited me over.” He said.

“Well, I got dragged by Rena since her friends were busy and she didn’t wanted to come alone.”

A little commotion appeared on the dancing floor. The disco’s thugs were asking a group of people to abandon the establishment. Apparently, all of them were students from other schools. Even though that disco wasn’t anyone territory, there was a black limousine parked in the entrance.

“After what happened the other day, something changed. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but I think that those idiots are gone now.” Elesis said to Raven.

“However, the idiot that’s about to make her appearance might be even worse.” Raven answered, grabbing a bunch of peanuts from a near bowl with his mechanical arm and stuffing them in his mouth.

The limo opened it’s doors and a man in black suit exited the car. He offered his hand to another person. And with that, Eve emerged from the luxurious car. She made her way into the night club. She was wearing a long black dress that hugged her body with its skirt opened in the front, exposing her two long white legs. She didn’t walk into the pub, she let herself hover over the ground. Not long after she entered the building, the place was flooded with members of the student council.

“Yuck, and I only wanted to have a fun night with the gang.” Raven said.

“Yeah… about that… I have to go; I have some work to do.” Elesis said.

“At this hour of the night?” Raven asked surprised.

Elesis just nodded and made her way out the disco. She was unaware of it, but Eve followed her with her eyes as she left.

“You’re not telling me were she’s going right?” Chung asked Raven.

“The truth is that it is also a mystery for me.” Raven replied.

The party was getting more interesting. Rena and Ara’s group joined with them, bringing a bunch of good looking ladies along. Chung was having fun when he received a call on his Elshard. He took it out and looked at the clear surface of the sphere to see a picture of Elsword in it.

“Hey Els, what’s up?” Chung said after picking up.

“Dude! Where are you? I forgot my freaking keys and I can’t get in the dorm.” A voice sounded from the artifact.

“Again?! I tell you every day to take them with you. Wear them as a necklace or something.” Chung complained.

“Sorry man, can you just come here and open the door for me?”

Even if Elsword had asked, Chung was enjoying the night. He had managed to have a fun conversation with Ara. And Raven and the others didn’t look like they wanted to leave anyway.

“Why don’t you come hang out with us them? We’re on the Whim” Chung suggested.

“You’re hanging out with those weirdos again, right?”

Chung wouldn’t exactly use the word “weirdos” but he knew Elsword wasn’t really fond of them.

“I’m sure you would get along if you came, they’re not as bad as you think.” Chung said.

“Nope man, I don’t care if they bully kids or not. I just don’t want to get in sister’s way.” Elsword explained.

Getting in his sister way. What would Elsword mean by that? Chung thought to himself. Just as he was about to ask Elsword about it Ara suddenly interrupted him.

“This is my favorite song! Mister Chung, would you dance with me?” She said, already grabbing him and dragging him to the dance floor.

“Mister Chung? Oooooh man, you should have told me you were with a girl.” Elsword said, followed by a laugh and continued: “Don’t worry about it man, I’ll ask someone else to let me borrow their room for the night, have fun, and use that thing I gave you the other day!”

Chung was about to complain again but the connection was cut from the other side. He glanced at the dance floor. It was packed with people already dancing. Humans, Nasods and all kinds of humanoids displayed their moves there.

Da-da-da-da-da…. Dance?! Chung thought to himself. It was literally the only thing Chung can’t really do. Since he was always utterly embarrassed of dancing in public. However he only recalled dancing in ceremonial balls held between royal members, which also meant the only thing he knew about dancing was a waltz. It was too late, however, since Ara already pull him away from the safety of the bar and plunged him right in the middle of the dancing floor.

The song currently playing was really loud and fast. The lights were flashing, laser beams drawn beautiful patterns and a fog machine filling the place with a mist that was colored by all the lighting. But the most surprising thing was the girl in front of him. She was moving her body as if she were the only person in the whole room. Her feet flew from one step to another fast, her hips curved with every beat and her hair shake along with every movement. The whole time she was smiling and looking at Chung, waiting for him to join the dance. Was she not aware of how uncomfortable he was?

However Chung felt like he shouldn’t let her down right now and tried to dance. Since he didn’t know what to do he just started by moving his arms a bit. He looked around and saw the other people already dancing. Why would he be so worried? Nobody there looked like they knew how to dance. Everyone was moving the way they liked, or rather; the way they enjoyed. And with that in mind Chung allow himself to move his legs a bit, then his arms a bit more, and finally his whole body was dancing. Ara’s smile got wider as his dance partner got into it.

Some songs later Ara finally got satisfied with dancing. Chung couldn’t believe how tiring dance actually was. They looked for their friends and found Raven leading Rena outside. He had his right arm wrapped around Rena’s waist and was holding a vodka bottle on the other hand. He stopped when he saw Chung and Ara coming.

“Hey, nice moves boy.” Rena cheered on Chung.

“Yeah, you did half great out there, Chung. I’m going to walk her home since it’s kind of late. You… huh… don’t wait for me.” Raven said.

Chung nodded and bid farewell to them. He was left alone with Ara again. And from the looks of it, the party wasn’t even close to finishing. Ara ordered another two drinks and gestured Chung to follow her. They went upstairs to the VIP balconies.

“Look, that one is free.” Ara said, pointing at one of the glass walled rooms.

“If you ignore the gorilla guarding the entrance.” Chung said.

“Oh, that’s not a problem. Follow me.” Ara said.

She boldly walked in front of the huge suited grunt that protected the balcony from unwanted guests. Chung was speechless as he follow her.

“Excuse me, you can go away now. I have arrived.” Ara said once she was in front of the huge guy.

He looked at her with disbelief.

“Names?” The grunt asked.

“How dare you not know my name!” Ara yelled.

“Ara…” Chung said tugging from Ara’s sleeve.

The huge guy didn’t take the joke as funny, he raised his hand as if he were going to knock her out.

“Don’t worry, they’re with me.” A female voice said.

The guardian looked over her and immediately bowed and disappeared. Chung and Ara also looked to meet their savior. It was Eve, she was followed by a group of members of the council, Aisha between them.

“You do have some nerve trying to enter here.” Aisha said while laughing.

“If you wanted to enter so badly you could have ask me before. Try not to get into trouble next time.” Eve said, entering the balcony.

Her group followed her along and they sat in a semicircle, it looks like they were going to hold some kind of meeting rather than enjoy the music.

“You’re not coming in?” Aisha said, seeing the two of them standing still at the entrance.

Chung took a quick glance at Ara and grabbed her by the arm before saying:

“Thank you, but it may be better if we head home before we get into more trouble.”

Even if Ara looked really sad about it, they went out of the disco. The fresh air of the night was really pleasurable after the dense atmosphere inside the building, not to mention the smell of tobacco and sweaty people.

“Where do you live?” Chung asked, opening his Elshard to check any unread messages.

“In the girls dorms.” Ara answered.

“Alright then, since we both live in the dorms why don’t we go together?” Chung said.

He was a bit concerned about her, since she wasn’t able to walk straight; maybe that last drink was too much for her. So after his offering both of them started walking. There weren’t many people in the streets at that hour, nor many cars either. Only the casual peasant that they would encounter every 5 minutes. They saw a vending machine and Ara asked Chung to buy some water for her. She was starting to light up. He walked over the machine and ordered the water. When he opened his wallet to pay it, he found that thing Elsword gave him some days ago. It was a square plastic envelope with a ring-shaped thing inside. He closed it at the same time his face went totally red. He looked back to check if Ara had seen it, but she was busy looking at her own Elshard.

“Calm down, there’s nothing like that going to happen tonight.” Chung said to himself.

They finally arrived at the school dorms. The campus was totally empty and the lights were out. Only the lights on the stores’ windows remained lit, giving the whole place an eerie aura. They finally stood in front of the girls dorms gates. It was time to say good bye and Chung wasn’t sure about how. He actually wanted to ask Ara to go out some other day, but a hard silence had set between them.

“It was fun tonight, would you like to… um… to go out some other day?” Chung asked nervously.

“Only if next time you hold up until late.” Ara answered with a smile.

She quickly got near him and gave him a kiss in the cheek before leaving. He stood there with a flustered look on his face and his fingers traced the little spot she kissed.

Elesis huffed as she waited in front of the student council room for Aisha to call her. She was still wearing her class uniform and lazily browsing through her Elshard when she came out of the room.

“Come in.” Aisha said.

Elesis walked in the room. It was a normal classroom whose chairs and tables were arranged to form a U with a single chair in the center. Although there was a lot of people there, the president dismissed all of them when Elesis came in, Aisha included. Now they were alone.

“Elesis, this is the third time this week.” Eve said, standing up and walking towards the windows.

“I’m starting to think you have something against me.” Elesis answered swinging in her chair.

“Quite the contrary, we would not waste time with you if it weren’t of our interest.” Eve added, facing Elesis.

The president walked over to her desktop and pulled out a big folder of papers that were deposited on Elesis’ lap.

“That’s your history registry for all your bad actions during the time you spent in the school. It was almost empty… until last year.” Eve said.

Elesis stopped swinging in her chair. Eve looked at her by the corner of her eye. Since Elesis refused to speak Eve continued.

“Before that your grades were top class. You easily achieved an average of 10 in all your subjects. However, since last year your grades started going down suddenly.”

“I still have a high marks in everything.” Elesis protested.

It was true, the actual average grades of Elesis rounded the 9. However that didn’t stop Eve.

“You do have the brains, which mean that what is missing is the aptitude. Tell me, Elesis; what has driven you to down this path--leading a school gang that borders crime?”

Elesis didn’t answer.

“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that what you do here will affect your entire life. Are you sure you want to throw that away just to hang out with some troublesome students?” Eve continued.

But Elesis didn’t say anything more.

“If you don’t want to cooperate, you’ll be treated as a normal troublesome student. Next time I call you here, you’ll be punished.” Eve said.

“If that’s all you need to tell me, then I’ll leave.” Elesis answered.

She stood up and walked out of the classroom. Eve didn’t say anything more, she only followed her with her eyes. Right in front of the classroom Elesis found Aisha, waiting alone in the halfway.

“Your owner is waiting for you.” Elesis said jokingly.

Aisha gave a disgusted look to Elesis and entered class. Elesis was going home; however she could hear something inside the classroom.

“I insist on it Eve, don’t waste your time with those criminals. We should ask Penensio to expel all of them.”

Elesis shrugged and walked away. Not like she cared about it, everyone who followed her did so on their own free will after all. This time she was called to the president office because she was discovered smoking weed on the campus. The other two times she was also caught doing similar actions with her friends. However she was always the only one called in, while her friends would get an immediate punishment. She was actually tired of it.

She decided to go to Raven’s room instead. She needed something to relax after that session with the president. She took her Elshard from her pocket and plugged in its earphones before playing its stored music. A rock theme about a man wanting to see his beloved one again drowned out any other sound. Elesis let herself walk distracted to her friend’s room, and once there she only realizes that Raven was waiting on the hallway.

“Hey Raven, what’s up?” Elesis said.

Raven answered by placing a finger on his lips.

“Keep it down; these lovebirds are at it again.” Raven said in a soft tone.

“Again? How much time do they need?” Elesis complained.

Raven shrugged, Elesis let out a sigh.

“The president caught me again with the others smoking. She said next time she will punish me.” Elesis said.

“Next time? She’s being trying to scare you with that since the first day she called you to her office.” Raven said.

“But this time was different. She even sent out all the other guys from the council and said that she has read my history. And I don’t know if it was my imagination but I think she was trying to be mean to me.” Elesis added.

“Trying to be mean to you?! She must be bloody sick of dealing with you; of course she would be mean.” Raven answered.

Both of them remained silent. Trying to hear what was being said inside the room.

“So are they going to do it or what?” Elesis said.

“Want a bit more?”

Lu said while she sat on top of Ciel crossed legs.

“Yeah, it has a good taste. How do you do it?” Ciel answered.

Lu took another chocolate cookie from her bag and placed it on Ciel mouth without dropping her controller. A two player videogame was paused on the TV, some short of 2D side scroller beat’em up game. After Ciel munched the cookie she resumed playing.

“Your character looks cute, was that the same outfit she was wearing yesterday?” Ciel asked.

Lu let out a nervous laugh as she continued to play.

“Don’t tell me you wasted money on this game, again, Lu.”

“I can’t help it, those costume outfits are just too cute to let them go away.”

Lu’s character swung a big sword over a cartoony monster while wearing a cat one-piece pajama. Ciel sighed as he turned his sigh over his portable console. He was playing some kind of visual novel game. He was holding it in front of Lu, so he had to look over her shoulder to see the screen. The scent of her hair conditioner was distracting enough for him to not be able to choose between the dialog options in his game.

“Ciel, choose this one.” Lu said pointing one of the possible answers.

“No, this character wants to marry that girl, so I shouldn’t say something so rude.” Ciel said, discarding said option.

However Lu just pouted at him.

“It’s not rude, it just a bit harsh, but you know, you can’t always be too good or you’ll make a fool of yourself.” Lu said, resuming her game again.

She just completed the stage for the 967th time. She was so close to get an achievement she really coveted. Ciel thought about it for a second. It was true that Lu’s option was harsh, but maybe if the other character understands it, it was a better way to convey his avatar’s feelings. However he was distracted by something else again. Since the other day, Ciel hadn’t mentioned Lu and Lento again. He was wondering if this was an appropriate time to do it. Lu moved in place to celebrate her beating the stage again. It was a sarcastic form of celebration since she looked rather exhausted at that point; however her swinging around pressed uncomfortably against Ciel’s leg causing him to groan in pain.

“Oops, sorry Ciel.” She said.

That little jolt of pain was enough to wake Ciel from his thoughts. He put the portable console away and stared at Lu’s back.

“Hey Lu, about the other day… Did you two…?” Ciel asked, not being able to say it.

Lu continued playing as if she hadn’t heard it; however she was frozen in place, meaning she actually heard it and was only pretending. After a while of both of them silenced, she finally spoke.

“Do you want to know?”

“I asked so, I guess I do.” Ciel answered.

“Why, what good would it do for you to know?” Lu answered, looking back at him.

“I’m just asking, you know, as a friend wanting to know how his friend’s doing.” Ciel said, averting his eyes from Lu’s ones.

“Yeah, we did it. We are together so it’s normal for us to do it right?” Lu said, looking again at the screen.

“You’re lying.”

Ciel put his hands over Lu’s shoulders and turn her around.

“Why do you think so?”

“I can tell, I’ve known you for long enough. Every time you lie your nose twitches.” Ciel said.

“Leave my nose alone!” Lu complained hiding her nose and turning back to her game.

Ciel didn’t push the matter anymore. The truth is that he was relieved. But he knew it wouldn’t last long. They were a couple as Lu said. After a while Lu turned off the game and curled on Ciel lap. Ciel felt a bit awkward about it.

“You know Ciel, I would like to have more support from you. You’re an important person to me. However you did quite the opposite.”

“I can’t support you with that. I’m sorry.” Ciel said.

“Yeah. I lied to you, I admit it. But I didn’t lied because I don’t want you to know, I lied because I was… embarrassed.” Lu said, standing up and walking over the other bed.

“Could it be that you have some reservations about it?” Ciel asked.

Lu looked away, giving Ciel her back. No one said anything else. The door slammed open and Elesis walked in.

“Sorry to barge in, but I got tired of waiting.” Elesis said, jumping over the bed Lu was lying in.

“I’m sorry dude; I couldn’t keep her quiet anymore.” Raven said in a whisper to Ciel.

“No matter.” Ciel answered.

“Elesis!” Lu yelled, jumping to hug her.

“How’s my little favorite marshmallow doing?” Elesis said, giving a strong stroke to Lu’s hair.  
So strong that it made Lu’s hair all disheveled. She complained but Elesis continued as if she hadn’t heard anything.


	6. Chapter 6

Smoke and dust floated in the dark hallway. Chung leaned against a corner and peeked out. 10 meters from his position he spotted someone hiding behind another corner. Chung hugged the big black rifle he was carrying and made a signal to the two others accompanying him.

He jumped out of cover pointing the rifle towards the enemy and taking his shot. His two companions ran straight to the other side of the hallway. Chung caught a glimpse of the enemy as the target abandoned the safety of his cover. He lined up a shot. However, before he was able to pull the trigger, a stream of blue magical bullets came from behind the enemy targeting Chung. He tried to dodge them by ducking on the ground, however it was too late. He felt the shock from the energy bullets as he hit the ground, and then a whistle was heard.

“Chung, Welling, Sarah, you’re out!”

Instructor Edan pointed at the three of them as they stood up with a groan and left the training ground.

“Raven’s team is the victor of today’s trainings.” Edan pointed them.

Upon hearing the results, everyone spectating the match started packing up to leave. They were in the training grounds simulation chambers. A big building where the center was cut out into an arena-like field, where a special terraforming platform morphed the ground to simulate any kind of terrain. Chung watched as the walls of the the environment around him slowly melted away into a brown wooden floor.

“That was a good match, shrimp.” Raven said approaching Chung.

It was already night, they slowly walked out of the camp. Mistress Q was waiting for them next to the skipper with her group of students already on board. As always they looked like they went through hell. Before the skipper took off, Edan claimed everyone attention.

“I guess at this point of the year you’re all aware of the expedition. I want to remind you that if you want to take part, you must tell so to Instructor Q and pass her aptitude exam.”

Everyone responded with a vague “okay” and the skipper took off.

“Hey Raven, are you taking the exam?” Chung asked.

“I think I’ll pass, there is something important I must take care off and I can’t be absent for so long.” Raven answered.

The skipper flew over the city. Since it was late at night the city looked like a shadow dotted with lights. Only the main plaza, full of neon ad big screens was bright enough to see what was going on from there. They landed and boarded the bus. Their military training didn’t end until they were on their beds.

“Do you want to come with us?” Raven asked once they left the bus.

“Well, I suppose I could” Chung answered.

They headed to the usual bar. Elesis was already there with some of her gang’s members. And surprisingly enough, Eve was there too. The president was wearing the school uniform and was sitting in a table right in front of Elesis. They weren’t talking, Eve was reading a newspaper while she sipped some coffee and Elesis’ gang was eyeing her as if they were looking at some unpredictable predator.

Raven threw his backpack next to Elesis and sat, the waitress brought him the usual drink even before Raven ordered it. Chung was also served what he used to order there: an electric soda, the most popular drink over the world. A blue colored glass bottle with a light blue liquid inside. Once the waitress opened it, blue sparks flew out of it.

“What’s the president doing here?” Chung asked.

“She comes very often, actually.” Elesis answered.

“And since she’s here, try not to do something that would land us in detention.” Raven added.

“Will all the other members come as well?” Chung wondered.

“No, surprisingly enough she always came here alone and stays like that until she leaves. Must be her place for stress relief.” Elesis said.

Chung looked around. The loud rock music, the dark and creepy decorations on the bar and the odd look of the bar patrons. It was definitely a place not suitable for the school president and even though she was there, sitting with a coffee and a newspaper. She didn’t even talk to anyone, nor did she complained of the people smoking.

She was there for approximately twenty minutes and before she left, leaving the money on the table. Once she was far enough, Elesis turned to her friends and spoke.

“Alright, tonight we are going to pay a visit to South High. Tell everyone, we’re jumping the wall this time.”

Everyone agreed with her before leaving as well.

“Hey Chung, do you want to come?” Elesis asked.

“Huh… I’m not sure if I should go.” He answered.

“Don’t worry, It won’t be too dangerous. You might end up with a broken bone or something, but nothing serious.” Raven said.

Nothing serious? Wasn’t that serious enough?

“We could use a pair of strong arms. What do you say?” Elesis insisted.

“Well, I guess I can go and watch what goes on.” Chung finally said.

“That’s my boy” Elesis cheerfully said hitting Chung in the shoulder.

“Ciel, stop!”

“Give it to me. Now!”

“No!! Stop it already.”

“Lu, if you don’t give it to me I’ll have to break it.”

Ciel quickly grabbed the small plastic card on Lu’s hand.

“Noooo please…”

“You were going to spend money again on that game. I’ve seen farmers milk their cows less!”

“It’s only this time… please.”

“I said no. May I remind you last week when you secretly tried stealing my lunch hall tickets because you were out of cash?”

Lu pouted as she stomped out of the room slamming the door shut. Ciel turned around looking at the small credit card. It had a lot of numbers written on it, as well as a drawing of a shy looking blonde girl with a black tiny hat. While he was inspecting it, he heard a scream on the hallway as well as the door opened. Lu entered the room wearing her gauntlets. Ciel evaded the punch that was aimed at his back.

“Hey! Are you out of your mind?” He yelled.

“I wasn’t going to hit you for real, Ciel.” She answered.

However, he realized that in his dodge the credit card was dropped, and now was in Lu’s hands again. He stared at her when she hid the credit card in one of the interior pockets of her uniform. He sighed and let her get away with it this time.

“I hope you don’t count on me when you’re out of money again.” Ciel said.

“Oh, I know you won’t let me starve.” Lu answered.

Their little discussion was over when a knocking on the door interrupted them. Ciel opened it to see Lento.

“Hi Ciel, I came to pick up Lu.”

Ciel didn’t answered, he just went back in and gestured Lu over to her boyfriend. She grabbed her backpack and exited Ciel’s room with him. They didn’t even say anything to each other when she was leaving. After he was alone, he stayed in his bed for a while, staring at the ceiling. After a while his Elshard rang. He quickly checked it, the sound was the one Ciel has set for Lu’s messages.

“Sorry about before. I want to repay you. Why don’t we go to that popular disco on the urban center tonight?” The message said.

Ciel rolled over the bed.

“Are you asking me to be your chauffeur?” He wrote in response.

He waited for the response.

“No you idiot. We’re going just the two of us. Lento won’t come.”

He rolled over again and answered.

“Ok them.”

The council room was full of people. Not only students but also teachers gathered there to hear Eve’s announcement of the month. After she displayed her leading skills as the student council president, everyone left. After the room was almost empty, Aisha sent off the remaining students and talked to Eve.

“That Disco we went the other day sure was nice.” She said.

“Yeah, I already visited it before, but it was good going with all of you there.”

“So you’ve got any plans for tonight?” Aisha asked.

“No. I keep my agenda up to date.” Eve answered.

“Come on, I was asking if you want to go out or something.” Aisha explained.

“I do not wish to go out tonight, even so; if you would like it, we could hang out in your room.”

“That would be marvelous. I have that movie we wanted to watch last week.” Aisha said, beaming with happiness.

“Then it is decided.”

They left the room and locked it before heading over to Aisha’s place. She was staying in the girls dorm. Even if Eve would visit that place often, she herself wasn’t staying there. She would always go back to her home, situated in Altera’s main tower. Aisha didn’t have a roommate, so her room was smaller than the others.

The place was full of Aisha’s taste decorations. Posters on every wall depicting rock bands and dark landscapes. Small figurines of a popular TV show about magical girls filled the shelf. A open drawer full of black and purple sweaters and checkered skirts. The space below her bed was overflowing with long high boots. And right near the entrance was hanged a school uniform. A big TV occupied the wall opposite to the entry, while a desk filled the space that would be occupied by a bed if it were a two person room.

Aisha let Eve enter first and sat on the bed. It was still unmade, looking like if Aisha had just left the room. They were adorned with a big picture of a girl riding on the back of a giant white-and-purple bat. She entered second and turned on the lights. While she was searching for the DVD Eve settled on the bed, tugging from the messy blankets to cover herself. It was then that Aisha spotted something terrible on her bed: a white piece of cloth with purple stripes. Aisha quickly snatched it before Eve could see it and threw it inside the drawer. As she was doing that she spotted the DVD, next to the drawer. It was an animated movie about giant robots that fight against huge creatures to defend a subterranean base.

“Would you mind it if I order some snacks?” Eve said, taking out her Elshard.

“Oh, suit yourself.” Aisha said playing the DVD.

The clock reached 00:00. As planned the gang was gathered near the wall, in a particular spot behind a slope. Raven and another man were helping the gang members scale the edge. Thanks to their teamwork the whole group had passed the walls in about ten minutes. Without wasting time they followed their leader.

“So what’s the plan when we get there?” Raven asked.

“Find their secret stash.” Elesis answered.

They moved along empty streets and dark alleys. Avoiding being seen was easy enough, since most of the traffic would be on the busier commercial streets at that hour of night. It took around half an hour to reach the opposing school.

Unlike Empress Academy, South High Technical School wasn’t surrounded by walls. It was actually a short fence made of tall bars that were separated enough to slip through. The place wasn’t very big. The main building that housed the classrooms was a 5 story building. It had a rectangular shape, with a smaller annex on one side, which the gang assumed was the gym. There weren’t any dorms, shops, nor any other kinds of places inside the school grounds. The school consisted only of the main building, the annex, and a small playground where a basketball court and a soccer field merged in the same area. The remaining space was occupied by a covered area to protect students on rainy days.

“This place looks kind of run down.” Chung said.

“What are you saying boy? This place is the standard for a school. If you haven’t noticed our school is kind of outstanding.” Raven said, helping Chung slid in.

With that said, it shouldn’t be many place where the Banthus gang could hide something. They decided to start looking by the annex. A member of the gang tried to open the door with a lock pick. Half an hour later they were still waiting.

“Shit, admit that you don’t know how to do it already.” Elesis complained.

“It’s not so easy, why don’t you try yourself.” The man protested.

Elesis started kicking his back while he hurried to get the door open. Meanwhile Raven got tired of waiting and asked some members to follow him and search for another entrance. Chung hurried to join Raven since he was also tired of staring at a guy messing with two paper clips.

“It’s common for some students to leave the windows open, let’s see if we spot one.” Raven said.

He pulled out a flashlight and illuminated the walls. Almost all windows seemed shut. They finally found one open, whoever it was on the annex, meaning that it was five meters height. Raven asked one of their companions to bring the “gear”. It was a huge backpack Chung hadn’t been aware they were carrying. Raven took out a hook with a rope. He skillfully threw it and hooked it on the windows ledge.

“Who would have guessed we would use what we learnt in Military training here, huh?” Raven said handing the rope to Chung.

They climbed it pretty easily, unlike the rest of the members who couldn’t follow the two of them. Even if the window was really high, on the inside was just a meter over the flooring near the spectators’ benches. Once inside, Chung confirmed the annex was a gymnasium. It had a wooden light brown floor. Long platforms with benches in both sides of the room and an elevated stage on the side, opposing the exit. It also had an electronic scoreboard hanging from the ceiling. Raven checked if he could open the door for the ones outside. The door was designed so it couldn’t be opened from the outside without a key, while opening it from inside was as easy as pushing the handle. Luckily for them, the janitor that forgot to close the window also forgot to lock the door.

Once everybody was inside the gym, they started searching every corner. They looked for any sign of movement. Scratched floors, trails in the dust, places undamaged by the sun. Any kind of sign that could suggest something could be hid there.

“If we don’t find it here, we will have to look through the main building…” Elesis said.

“Under that stage, there’s usually a lot of stacked desks that are unused through the year, so it’s a good hiding point right?” Raven said.

“It was literally the first place I looked. Do you think I’m a novice or something?” Elesis answered.

With the search as unsuccessful as it was, Raven headed inside the main building. There were several doors connecting it with annex, all of them unlocked for some reason. As before, Chung just followed him, being new to all of this, he felt a bit mischievous about it, but bewildered as well. Still not knowing what they were searching for, it was a bit hard to even help.

“It’s weird that the security is so lax over here…” Raven said.

“Well, it’s a school after all.” Chung replied.

“Even if it’s a school, there’s lot of valuable things someone could steal. Like electronic equipment and such.” Raven explained.

They were walking along a long hallway with classrooms on each side. All of them appeared to be normal.

“We’ll take forever if we have to search them all.” Chung complained.

“We won’t. If they’re hiding something, they would do it in an unused or rarely used classroom. It would be very risky either way, since you can never predict what would happen in class.” Raven said.

With that said, normal classrooms were out of question. The same with the labs and the computer classrooms. They roamed the school until they finally spotted what they were looking for: a classroom with its desks in disarray. Some of them were piled on top of each other, and most of them weren’t aligned as you could expect.

They searched every inch of the classroom. They even took down the blackboard to look behind it. But nothing was found. As they were about to leave the place and regroup, Chung noticed something weird. The tables and desks were piled there, but they were stored in the gym as well.

“Does a school as small as this one needs to have more than one place with tables stored in it for the whole year?” Chung asked.

And after that, all the looks fell upon the higher stack of desks and realized they hadn’t inspected the ceiling. As any other classroom ceiling it was made of square planks of that weird material Chung didn’t even know what they were called. They were easy to lift individually, and they could hold things between the small space between the ceiling and the upper floor.

“Good call boy, why don’t you take a look?” Raven said handling the flashlight to Chung.  
He climbed the pile of desks. They trembled and moved under his weight. When he was on top of them, he was able to push up one of the planks and peer inside. Helping himself with the light he scanned the small space over the ceiling until he finally found something out of place. A wooden box. It was small and didn’t had any kind of decoration around it. What it had was a number combination lock on the front. Chung grabbed it leaving the flashlight on top of the planks. When he moved it he spotted something else behind it. A small fur ball that turned to him revealing two tiny red eyes. A rat! He got scared by it enough to lose balance, falling with all the desks on the ground, creating a huge noise. Luckily the box was still in his hands. Raven quickly grabbed him, gesturing for him to stay quiet and pushing him to the door. The others were standing guard there.

“Who’s over there?!”

They heard a voice call from the hallway. It didn’t sounded like one of their comrades, so they were waiting for Chung to leave. That voice could be the school janitor, or even a serial murderer, it didn’t matter since they shouldn’t be there in the first place. Once in the hallway they saw the beam of light of a flashlight around the corner and took the opposite way. Raven took out his Elshard. He had it muted so he didn’t see the amount of messages Elesis sent him just a minute ago. Apparently while they were still on the gym they saw two vans from a private security company arriving. They were able to safely escape though.

“Going back to the gym would be a waste of time. We will head to the nearest exit and escape through the fence.” Raven said to his group.

“Raven! I forgot the flashlight over there!” Chung said.

“Don’t care about it. They would find out anyway seeing the mess you did with the desks.” Raven said.

Chung felt a bit guilty over it. There wasn’t time to worry however. The nearest exit happen to be a fire exit. Raven halted his team to examine the door. He found what he was looking for: the cables that connected it with the fire alarm. With a strong pull of his mechanical arm he tore the cables apart. They broke with a lot of sparks and crackling sounds. He then kicked the door open and everyone ran into the dark backyard. They were almost outside the school grounds when the light from one car illuminated them.

“Hey! You stop right there!” A voice shouted from the car.

Without a second thought they all ran away. The car tried to follow them but they went through a narrow alley filled with trash containers. Since it couldn’t drive through, the driver followed them by foot. Chung took a look at their follower. It was a tall man dressed in a light blue uniform. He carried a whistle he was using to try to catch their attention. He was fast enough to not lose them anyway.

“He might call reinforcements, don’t slow down.” Raven ordered, turning around a corning.  
As he was running, he checked his Elshard to see if there was any new message from Elesis. And she did send another one. She was saying most of the gang had escaped, which was a relief. He took a look behind to see the guard starting to fall behind.

“Chung, with me! The others split up after the next corner.” Raven said.

The next corner divided on four different paths. Chung and Raven followed straight while the rest of the group divided between the other two ways. Not far from there, the alley ended in a street. The moment Raven a Chung reached it, still with the guard behind them, a car stopped right there, blocking the exit. It was a white car, with the lower parts painted in black. And a big golden shield with a crown drawn on the co-pilot door. Under it four black letters said: A.I.P.D.

“Shit! It’s the damn police.” Raven said.

He spun around, grabbing Chung by the arm and dragging him away. The guard also stopped and reached for his belt.

“Watch out Raven, he has a Taser gun!” Chung screamed.

The guard shot his weapon. Two darts attached with cables to the gun flew towards Raven. However he ducked just in time to be grazed by them, after that he released Chung, placed all his weight on his advanced foot and connected a strong punch with the guard jaw. He fell unconscious on the ground and they took that chance to run again. This time with the cops behind them. Two of them were in pursuit, asking them to stop.

“We will not harm you, stop where you are!” One of them yelled.

Unlike the guard, the two cops were a lot faster. They were actually catching up. Chung and Raven were starting to tire as well. They abandoned the alleys and headed for an open plaza. An entrance to the highway was near.  
“If we cross the highway I bet you they won’t dare to follow us.” Raven said, heading for the road.

“The highway? You’re crazy!” Chung shouted, barely managing to keep his pace.

Altera had an elevated highway that surrounded the entire island, allowing faster travel from any part of the island. It was a wide road with four lanes on each direction separated by a two meters space of green and plants. It was usually filled with traffic even at that hour of the night. Most of the cars were actually automated drones. Crossing it by foot would mean more than 20 meters of a 150km/h traveling death.

They were standing right next to it. A lot of cars at high speed traveled for it. Chung wasn’t very sure about it. Was it really worth the risk? All they do was snuck in a school after all. But as he was thinking, Raven walked near a street lamp and used his mechanical arm to hit it. The lamp fell over the road, shoving the tip in the ground that were between the two directions of the highway, creating a small bridge just half a meter above the cars.

“Alright, let’s move on.” Raven said, jumping over the precarious bridge and crossing. Chung stared in amazement how his friend crossing the bridge without a second thought.  
He still doubted. He looked behind to see the two police officers behind him. They were almost on top of him. Raven was shouting to him to cross and in the heat of the moment, Chung decided to follow him. He carefully stepped over the downed lamp and started crossing it.

“What are you doing?! You want to get killed?” One of the police officers said.

The two pursuers stood by the lamp, not trying to cross it. Chung was halfway when he heard Raven shouting. He didn’t hear what he was saying because the strong sound of a horn muffled it. He looked to the noise source to see a big truck heading its way. He hurried near the middle of the highway and jumped off right when the truck rolled over the street lamp, sending it flying out of sight. Chung landed next to Raven, he quickly helped him up and they resumed running away.

“Dude! That was freaking awesome!” Chung said feeling a strong adrenaline rush.

“I know right?”

They continued to run along the middle of the highway until the police were out of sight. Once they felt they were safe, they slowed down to search for a safe way of crossing again. Chung then stopped in his tracks. The sound of the traffic was so strong that it muffled something that he could barely hear. The traffic became a bit lighter and then he was able to identify the sound. He turned around and stared in the distance to see a red and blue lights floating in the air.

“What’s that?” Raven asked.

“It’s a striker! We have to hide!” Chung said.

“Well you’ll tell me were because we are totally in the open here.”

Chung searched around and found something that might be useful. And after a while he spotted a tunnel entrance in the middle of the highway.

“It must be a maintenance access, let’s go!”

They entered the tunnel. It traveled from the middle to the other side of the road. The tunnel headed down, relieving them since they hoped it might lead them outside of the highway.  
The exit was in another alley, and since they could hear music they guessed they weren’t too far from the commercial street. However right when they left the tunnel, the sound of fire engines could be heard right above of them. They looked up to see their new pursuer. A big sky ship, pretty different of the ones they have used. This one had a smaller hull, and had four fire engines that were able to rotate in almost every direction. The body of the ship looked like a bigger police car; however the way the engines moved around to stabilize the ship gave it a weird flexible look. Four strong lights were attached on the front of it, and they were moving around looking for them. It finally lighted then up.

“Run!” Raven said.

“You two, stop right there or face the consequences.” An amplified voice was heard from the striker.

Losing the foot police was one thing, but that sky ship wasn’t going to let them. Even if they took a turn at every alley, the striker would still be over them. And they were already exhausted. More sirens were heard and they guessed more police cars were heading their way.

“Hey Raven, let’s stop here already.” Chung said, stopping.

“What? After we had come this far?” Raven said.

“There’s a damn sky ship over us, there’s nowhere to run and more of them are coming.” Chung complained.

Raven was a bit let down by this. He figured he could manage to escape that situation, but he remembered that Chung was still a spoiled child. However his decision wasn’t very difficult. As they were standing there, the sound of something being shot from a tube shook him awake. Something fell to the ground near him and seconds later a green gas was everywhere. Both Chung and Raven tried to run away, but when they tried to move, the muscles of their legs and arms seized, making them fall. The weird smell of the gas made them dizzy as they saw two figures walk over with their faces covered by masks.

“Look what we found, lieutenant.”

Aisha covered her mouth as tears flowed from her eyes. Eve was next to her, eating popcorn. Both of them with their eyes fixed on the TV, where a scene of a destroyed giant red robot lied under the letters “The End”.

“Ah… I loved that character, I can’t believe she’s dead” Aisha said, wiping her tears and taking out the DVD.

“We don’t know it for sure, she probably survived somehow.” Eve said, lying back and covering herself with the bed’s blankets.

The room was messier now than before. Opened snacks were in the floor. There were more clothes outside of the drawer and there was a cold pizza in its box waiting for being eaten.  
“Do you want to watch another one?” Aisha said, walking over the pizza and placing it over the bed.

She tasted the pizza, even cold it was delicious. She climbed on her bed to see Eve’s face due to the lack of response and she found that Eve was already sleeping. It was cute seeing her totally wrapped in blankets sleeping with such a calm face. Aisha sighed and turned off the TV. She was also feeling a bit tired, but considering the amount of work Eve had to manage daily, she understood her friend. She grabbed another blanket and managed to get comfy in the bed to sleep, too.

The police sirens could be heard not far away.

“Looks like is a busy night for some people huh?” Lu said, walking happily ahead of Ciel.  
They were heading for the Nasod whim. Lu was walking over a fence while swinging her purse in one hand. She chose to dress a plain blue dress with high heels. Ciel was following her on the sidewalk. He was wearing his usual coat. He wasn’t sure if he should have gotten more elegant or something. In the end he decided to wear what he was more comfortable with.

The Nasod whim had a huge line in front of it. Lu gasped after seeing it and she nervously looked at Ciel.

“Do you want to get in line?” He asked.

“If you don’t mind, I really wanted to come here today.” She answered.

They didn’t speak much while they were waiting. Ciel was a bit uncomfortable about it. Why would Lu invite him over so suddenly? Especially now that she has a boyfriend. He literally didn’t want that issue to come up that night. So he had to force himself to keep his mouth shut about it. Even so the urge to ask about it was really strong.

“Would you dance with me?” Lu asked, cheerfully smiling.

“I hope you learned how to dance.” Ciel answered, remembered the pain in his feet the last time they went out.

Lu punched him on his side and pouted.


	7. Chapter 7

The Nasod Whim was as vivid as ever. This day in particular featured a foam party. The dance floor had every table and booth removed to add room. A floating machine equipped with a bunch of foam cannons as well as speakers hovered over the dance floor, shooting away streams of white bubbles. The entrance was offering a swimsuit rental service for the night, and both Lu and Ciel just came out of the improvised changing rooms. Ciel was wearing deep blue trunks while Lu had a light blue bikini.

“This explains the huge queue to get inside; I didn’t know they were going to do this today!” Lu screamed excitedly, running into the foam.

She left a trail in the ocean of bubbles and turned back to call for Ciel. A summer song was playing and everyone was enjoying it, the private balconies were closed tonight and almost everyone was in the dance floor. Aside from the one on top, smaller machines floated around with free drinks. Even if it was hard trying to avoid your drink getting full of foam, Ciel managed to grab a pair of cups to share with Lu.

As the party was progressed, the lights in the disco dimmed and the usual laser lights cast their colorful rays across the floor. The bubbles reflected the lights brilliantly, creating a dream-like ambience.

After almost an hour of dancing, Ciel was already exhausted, and soaked. However Lu was still as fresh as ever. Luckily for him, she realized her partner was already out of energy.

“Do you want to take a break?” Lu asked as loud as she could.

“Yeah.”

They made their way to a specific area right next to the dance floor, it was only opened for that day apparently. The lights in the room were red, and a calefactory system kept the place at a comfortably warm temperature, even in a wet swimsuit. It also melted away the foam, keeping the place and the customer dry. A mobile bar was set there; they ordered some drinks and sat on a red leather sofa.

“It’s an interesting party today huh?” Ciel said trying to be heard over the loud music.  
Lu took a sip of her drink. It was called “Master Mateo”: a complicated beverage that was made of vermouth combined with a bit of gin, red grapefruit juice, rhubarb syrup, some drops of lemon bitter and a bit of an egg’s white. It was served in a vintage cup and adorned with a twisted peel of grapefruit, a leaf of mint and ice.

Her hair was still wet from the foam. Beads of water slid across her shoulders, back and chest; captivating Ciel’s attention. Once she put her drink down she noticed Ciel staring at her. He immediately looked away after being caught and tried to think something to say to break the ice.

“So… how are things going?” He said to her.

Ciel sipped his drink. He had ordered a simple combination of vodka and soda. Even if he hadn’t asked about it, he was expecting Lu to say something about Lento, and even though he didn’t want to speak about him that night, curiosity got the best of him.

“Well I suppose. Professor Grail says that I’ll fail his exams if I don’t get serious about it, but I guess I can still manage to pass them… What about you?”

Not being able to hear what he wanted was a bit frustrating.

“I’ve been doing well, the other day I saw you lurking around the sports clubs’ fields. Are you going to join any?”

“Ha ha! Of course not, I was there… hum… waiting for him to finish his training.”

“Him? Did she try to avoid using his name for some reason?” Ciel thought to himself.

“But let us not speak about those things today Ciel, we’re here to have some fun. Hey, why don’t we bail out of here and go to that park we used to visit.” Lu continued.

“You mean the park that is near the academy? We only went there to smoke.”

Lu got up the sofa; she shook her head to try to dry her hair. The moisture was beginning to make her locks curl. The white locks dripping in front of her face made her look even more cute than usual, or so Ciel thought. They headed out after getting dressed again. The swimsuit rent was incredibly expensive even if it was just an hour or two. The cold night air and the wet sensation that was still on them made Lu tremble with cold.

“Here, wear my coat.” Ciel said.

Lu didn’t try to reject it and snatched it right away happily wrapping herself in it. The coat was too long for Lu and its lower part was being dragged on the floor as she walked. Ciel pretended not to be cold; however the night was already pretty chilly. The walk between the disco and the park wasn’t long. Their favorite park was placed just a couple of blocks away from the academy walls.

Cherry trees dotted the landscape and the park itself was surrounded by huge buildings creating a four squared plaza. However since it was already winter the usual pink leaves were gone, and only a lot of skinned branches remained. The tiles distributed over the park, formed an X shaped path with circles on the exterior. In the center black and white tiles combined to form an abstract image. The park was illuminated strictly by lamplight, and most of the ground not covered with tiles had tall bushes on it, making it darker and harder to see. For that reason the park was usually visited by couples to have some fun, or by students that wanted to do some mischief. But most important was the group of Elesis’ gang members that patrolled it, keeping away rival students as well as undesirable visitors.

They walked to the center, and once there they went through an opening in the bushes. They crossed two walls made of bush and then sat between two trees. It was their usual spot. Ciel rest his back against the tree while Lu browsed through her purse.

“Oh, I found it.” She said, taking a joint out of the purse.

“Hum? Where did you get that?” Ciel asked surprised.

“I asked Raven some time ago, in case he would be absent or something.” She said, sitting in front of Ciel and giving it to him.

“The zippo is in the coat.” He said while rerolling the thin paper of the cigarette. It was all messy due to being in Lu’s purse.

She taped the coat in search of the lighter. But was unable to find it. Ciel finished readying the joint and seeing her still without the lighter he decided to reach for it himself. However he soon realized that with Lu wearing his coat it was really embarrassing and weird reaching out to it, so he took his hand out of it so fast that Lu laughed. He shook his head and placed the joint in his lips and lit it up.

The tiny light from it painted two orange dots on Lu’s eyes as she eagerly waited for her turn. The warm smoke flowed out of Ciel’s nose before he blew it out. Lu took the joint from Ciel and took a drag herself and lied on her back. The sky was clear that night, and the stars displayed their beauty in it. The smoke that rose from the lit joint merged with the soft light of the lamps.

A suddenly cold wind made Ciel tremble. The effect from the alcohol was wearing out, and the temperature drop was becoming more intense as the night advanced.

“Are you alright? Do you want me to return this?” Lu asked.

Ciel shook his head. Even if he was cold he wouldn’t admit it in front of Lu. Even if that stupid pride would reward him with a pneumonia. However it was evident how cold he was for Lu, seeing how his skin was full of goosebumps. She took a drag and blew the smoke on his face.

“Are you sure? Your lips are getting blue.” She insisted.

“Won’t you be cold then?” He answered.

It was true that Lu didn’t wanted to be cold. So she decided to do another thing. She sat astride on Ciel’s lap, facing him; and opened the coat to wrap him in it. He was surprised, however another blew of chilly wind shook him, and he decided to play along. He passed his arms between the coat and Lu back. It was warm. After that he leaned again against the tree and bent his knees to give Lu some support. The cold wind was gone, or rather it was pushed away by the comfort of Lu’s embrace.

Ciel almost lost himself to the relaxation of the joint and the hug, but then Lu brought him back with her movement. She was trying to get comfy on Ciel’s chest, however her hips were lightly pressing against Ciel’s. He tried his best to keep his mind clear of weird thoughts. When she found a good position she took another drag and looked into Ciel’s eyes. She approached his lips and blew the scented joint’s smoke between them. Their lips touched by a mere instant.

“It’s been awhile since we did that” Lu said.

As usual, she gave the joint to Ciel, expecting him to do the same in return. He did follow Lu’s little game. Their lips barely touching again.

“I still don’t really know why you enjoy it that much. We could just kiss.” Ciel said. However he didn’t realize he said the last part out loud until he saw Lu’s face.

“Do you want to kiss me?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Ciel said.

Since he already said more than he should once, he decided to place the bet there. After all there wasn’t too many to lose anyway. Lu didn’t answer back, so he took the initiative. He placed his arm around Lu’s back and drew her closer. Ciel placed his lips over Lu’s for a brief moment. They felt wet and fleshy. He looked her in the eyes. They were open, staring back at him; there wasn’t a single trace of anger or anything like that in them, so Ciel proceeded.

This time he closed his eyes and locked lips with her. A bit of sucking made them feel more moist, he let his tongue go through, licking Lu’s lips. She opened up, letting Ciel’s tongue brush against her teeth. And then it met with Lu’s. At first both tongues stepped back as if they were scared, but immediately after they searched for each other again. They touched again, and started to move playfully; licking and twisting around each other. The hot air that blew out of Lu’s nose made Ciel open his eyes for a second. Lu was with her eyes closed and her cheeks blushed. He resumed the kissing, moving his lips and changing his head position.

They finally broke the kiss, separating with their mouths slightly open. Their eyes met. Lu’s head was spinning along with Ciel’s. This time it was Lu that went in for a kiss, placing her hands against the tree’s bark. She leaned over Ciel more and he realized that he had let his guard down. By the way she was pressing her body against his it was impossible that she hadn’t noticed. But since she didn’t say anything about it he wondered if she was okay about it.

The second kiss broke. Lu stared back at him panting. The joint fell at some time on the ground and its embers were already extinguished. She leaned over his chest again.

“Ciel. I need to tell you a secret.” She said.

“What is it?” He asked.

Lu shoved her face in Ciel’s chest and spoke.

“I called you tonight so I wouldn’t have to spend the night with Lento.”

At first Ciel couldn’t understand what she was saying. He was still dizzy from the amazing kiss.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“You remember some time ago when I told you he wanted to… do it? Well, we didn’t do it… and he had become a bit… annoying from it.” She explained.

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.” Ciel answered.

“You’re really saying that after we kissed like this?” She said, laughing.

Ciel couldn’t help but to laugh as well.

“But, why didn’t you do it? I mean, you told me you’ll do it.” Ciel said.

“It’s hard to explain. I just didn’t feel like I should do it with him. I love him and all of that but… I feel like our love is just made up. Like two teenagers that doesn’t want to be tagged as losers for being virgin or something.” Lu said.

“That’s probably true for him. I mean, if you’re saying he’s being upset about it, he might be under some kind of pressure like that.”

Lu leaned back to think. She saw the dropped joint and picked it up, lighting it again.

“I’ve been thinking about ditching him.” She finally said.

Ciel didn’t say anything more. Even if it was sad it was good news for him. Well, everything was good news for him that night. Lu took the last drag of the exhausted joint. The effect of the smoke was already making them dizzy. Lu faced Ciel again and kissed him. She didn’t need tell Ciel that she wanted some love. They started making out again. As they were at it Ciel started losing interest in trying to hide his lust. Instead he ran his hands across Lu’s thighs. They were so soft and warmth as her lips. For Ciel, Lu’s skin felt like silk.

He decided to try and see where Lu would stop him. Slowly he lift the dress’ skirt without breaking their sweet kiss. Instead of resisting, Lu unbuttoned Ciel’s shirt. Her small hands caressed his bare chest, giving a calming sensation. He let his hands go up a little more, this time feeling her buttocks and inner thighs.

“Ciel… we should stop here tonight.” Lu said, breaking away from him.

A sudden chill awoke Ciel. He saw Lu straightening her dress in front of him. Even when he really wanted to protest, he just stood up as well.

“Yeah, lets head home, it’s late already.”

Chung was awoken by a loud voice. He looked around and found himself in a small white room. The source of the voice happened to be a megaphone on one of the upper corners of the room.

“Are you awake, sleeping Beauty?”

Chung nod, even when it was impossible for the speaker to see him.

“In about five minutes you’ll be interrogated about the incident you were involved in yesterday.”

And with that the megaphone went silent.

He inspected the room he was in. It was a square room of white ceiling, white walls and white floors. There was a single white metal door and the only furnitures in the room were a white bed with white blankets and a white desk, with a pink chair.

“Sorry about that. The jailor thought you were a girl.” A voice said behind him.

He looked back to see that the door had a small slit. The sound of a key turning a lock could be heard and was followed by the heavy creak of the door. Chung could see his interlocutor. It was a young man, with blonde hair and muscled looks. He had a messy five days beard and wore a dark blue office suit. An ID card was hung on his chest, displaying the name Jack and the rank: mafia police officer. He gestured for Chung to follow him and they went out of the cell. Chung realized he wasn’t in prison. After the gloomy hallway his cell was in, he was surprised to see a big office full of uniformed cops. He was lead into a room on the upper floor. This time it was bigger room, with a chair and a table. He sat there and waited for agent Jack to speak.

“Alright, we’ll wait for Lieutenant Connors and then you’ll tell us what happened yesterday.”

Five minutes later a knock on the door was heard, and Lieutenant Connors entered the room. Chung was surprised to see her. She was a Nasod, but pretty different to all the others. She was nearly two meters tall and her body looked a lot more dynamic than any other Nasod. Her skin was totally white and it was full of black lines that Chung realized they were to allow her skin to move and gesture. Her eyes were black while her iris was made of small lights arranged in a circle. She had long blue hair with exactly three single hairs falling over her face. However they were thicker and looked like some kind of plastic material.

“I am Lieutenant Connors. As I heard you’re Chung Seiker, son of Helputt Seiker.”

Her voice sounded as if it were some pre-recorded message. It was devoid of any kind of tone, intention or warmth.

“We need to hear an explanation about yesterday’s incident.” She said.

Chung took a deep breath and explained it. He altered the history. His version was that they entered the technical school to make a hazing to their rival school and that they were found out. Officer Jack was smiling and nodding as if he were remembering his own youth, while the Lieutenant was staring so hard at Chung that he could feel as if she were scanning his soul.

“Were you forced to follow this person?” Connors asked showing him a picture of Raven.  
Chung shook his head.

“No, we’re friends so I was just hanging out with him.” He answered.

“Are you friends with this person as well?” This time she showed an Elesis’ picture.

“I only spoke to her a bit.”

Both agents looked at each other, but they didn’t say anything.

“Hey Chung. Can I call you Chung right?” This time it was Jack the one speaking. “Tell me. How does the prince of Hamel Kingdom end up involved with a gang of delinquents? Did you have a quarrel with your father?”

Jack used a somewhat friendly tone. It was even hard to tell if it was part of the interrogatory or if it was only curiosity.

“Come on, you can tell me. Did he take away the credit card? Said that you cannot go out with your girlfriend? That you’re friends aren’t a good influence on you? My father was a tyrant too, when I joined the police corps he said I wasn’t worth anything. He wanted me to study to be a lawyer.”

“Hum… I appreciate the concern, but my father and I have a good relationship, sir.” Chung answered.

“I hope you can keep saying that once you arrive at Hamel, because we’re sending you there so a hamelian jury can determine your fate.” Connors said.

“Eli, wait.” Jack said, leaning in to whisper something to her.

“Officer Knight, I told you to not call me that, especially in front of suspects.” She warned once he finished whispering.

Once Chung heard their full names he finally realized he already knew these agents. They were usually on TV every time news about a gang or the mafia would be aired. They were Lieutenant Elizabeth Connors and Officer Jack Knight, and they were quite famous for their skill when it came to managing criminal gangs.

“Alright mister Seiker, my partner said that instead of being sent back to Hamel; your punishment will be handled by your tutors here.” Connors explained.

As she was saying that, a knock on the door was heard. Principal Penensio and Council president Eve entered the room. They introduced themselves to the two agents and sat in front of him. Chung noticed how Connors bowed to Eve and pulled the chair for her.

“Good morning Chung Seiker. Do you remember me? We met on the sky dock the first day you arrived here. It’s a pity the second time we met is when you’re under arrest.” Penensio said.

“I’m sorry, Principal Penensio.” Chung said, lowering his head.

“Don’t fret about it. I was once a troublesome child too. However I was able to learn and discipline myself. And this lovely lady here insisted that we should handle this issue.” He said pointing at Eve.

“Chung, I don’t know how you feel about being sent back under these conditions to your father. However I know that it would harm the school image. And it would be troublesome for your studies too. That’s why I decided to intervene here.” Eve explained.

“What they are saying, boy, is that you won’t be sent back to Hamel in exchange for a punishment in your school. Get your wrist ready because I can already see you filling chalkboards.” Jack added.

Eve and Penensio both nodded.

“You won’t be writing I won’t do it again 1000 times though, I decided that a suitable punishment for you would be helping the student council for the rest of the year. That way you’ll be able to know how much trouble you caused to poor Eve here with your little mischief.” Penensio said.

Chung just nodded in response. Both Eve and Penensio stood up to leave. They waited at the door for Chung. However before he stood up, Lieutenant Connors spoke again.

“However you’re still guilty of destroying public property as well as endangering innocent lives with your reckless actions. So you’ll be under house arrest for the rest of the semester. You are only allowed to leave your current home in the school dorms to attend your classes, your new obligations with the student council and to eat. You’re not allowed to leave your room to meet with other students; neither are you allowed to meet with them inside the room. And I’ll let you know that we will be surveilling you.”

With that Chung was allowed to leave. They asked him to wait in front of the gates of the night court to receive the official home arrest notification. Both Eve and Penensio went out without waiting for him. As he was waiting there, the court gates opened and Raven came out of it.

“Raven! I see you’re alright. What did they say to you?” Chung asked.

“Hi boy. Glad to see you well too. They beat us up badly last night. Looks like I’m going to spend a couple of months in prison.” Raven asked.

“What?” Chung asked surprised.

“Don’t worry, someone will come to pay my bail so I can leave earlier. But I’ll still be there for some time.”

“Too bad. I had Eve and Penensio help me. I’m under house arrest.”

“Oh, so the Queen already played her move on you.” Raven said.

“What do you mean?” Chung asked confused.

“Haven’t you realized? Isn’t it weird for you that someone as important as Eve is studying in our academy?” Raven asked.

“Well, now that you mention it…”

“She’s right where she wants to be. Empress Academy is the highest class school in the entire world. Only the best of the best are allowed to study here: princes, heroes, geniuses… And sooner or later, EVERY one of them end up owing the Queen a favor or two.”

“You’re screwing with me here now.” Chung said in disbelief.

“You can choose not to believe it if you want. But isn’t it weird for you that such a high class academy allows the existence of a delinquent gang under its wing? It’s like a favor farm! Almost anyone in the gang owes our dear goddess a favor already. I actually owe her two, and that must be the reason I’m going to jail today.”

Chung couldn’t believe it. He thought Eve was just being nice, but was she actually just collecting favors? The image of Eve, sitting on the council room; surrounded by her underlings with a twisted smile on her face waiting for the persons that owe her favors to come and pay her tribute in a mafia like fashion just popped in Chung mind.

“Nah, I think you’re paranoid.” He finally said.

“Chung Seiker! Calling Chung Seiker!”

A voice was heard from inside the court, he quickly bid farewell to Raven and entered. Raven was escorted to the Police Station prison cells by Jack and Connors. Before they ditched him in his cell, he was allowed to make a call.

Ciel rolled over his bed. His head was pulsing with pain. Every time he would open his eyes the light that entered through the room blinds would stab them.

“Vodka… even if I love you, you treat me like this…” He mumbled to himself.

But that just reminded him about what happened last night. He rushed to get his Elshard. It was resting on the table recharging its battery. He browsed through his message history. Lu hadn’t sent anything yet. He touched his lips and remembered the soft sensation he had last night. It was still hard to believe. Then he noticed the time displayed on the Elshard.

“I should be in the club in… two hours ago!” He said, rushing again to get changed.

He managed to put some clothes in him in just two minutes. Every Sunday morning they would do rehearsals of the current play. However he was more interested in seeing Lu. And he figured out It wouldn’t be a good idea to arrive late and anger her just six hours… eight hours actually; later than their first real kiss. He was about to leave the room when his Elshard rang. He jolted to grab it, he was actually going to forget it on the table.

“Lu?” He said.

“Yeah, it’s me, my dear Romeo.”

Ciel looked the Elshard display, it was showing Raven’s name and number.

“Dude…” Ciel said.

A laugh was heard from the other side of the shard.

“Actually I don’t have time for jokes. Listen up. I’m going to jail right now and I need you to do me a favor.”

“Woah, slow down there. What did you do?” Ciel asked.

“Lot of things, don’t worry, it’s actually only two months. But hey, I can’t give you the full details here but… If you look in your drawer, right under where you keep your boots there’s a small ventilation grill. I hid a box there with my money. Hum… you’ll find the details inside it.”

Raven said, looking behind him to see Jack and Connors waiting for him.

“Well that sounds simple enough… And why did you hide that there?” Ciel asked.

“You’ll understand it once you get it. Listen, you can have everything else that’s in the box, just make sure you come and pay my bail so I can get out. I’ll be waiting man.”

And then Raven hung the phone. Ciel wanted to go meet with Lu, but actually his friend being in jail was more urgent. So he decided to check that box Raven mentioned. He still didn’t understand why Raven would hide it in his drawer.

As he said, the box was there. It was a plain shoe box. However once he opened he was amazed to see its content. Approximately one kilo of weed in bulk with a note in it. Ciel took it and read it.

“Dear Ciel, if you’re reading this, either you finally found my secret stash or I’m in jail. If it’s the latter you’ll have to sell this in order to get the money to pay my bail. If it’s the former I dare you to touch my weed. Ask Elesis about selling this.”

“Damn it Raven! I’m not a drug dealer.” Ciel complained, putting back the box in its hiding spot.

Even if he didn’t like it, he didn’t want to leave Raven jailed. However, as payback for dragging him into it, he would make him wait a bit.

He finally left the room, heading to the theatre club. He was eager to see Lu. However he still had a weird feeling. He was worried that what happened yesterday was only due to the effect of alcohol and weed. But she only had a single drink and smoked just a little; it shouldn’t have affected her that much. No, it had to be real. Ciel increased his pace. He arrived at the club almost running. Everyone was changing into their costumes or putting on makeup. Ciel searched for Lu everywhere, but he found other girl wearing Lu character’s costume.

“Hasn’t Lu arrived yet?” He asked to the nearest member.

“She texted through the club chat that she was a bit ill and so she wouldn’t come today.”

The club chat! Ciel muted that chat long ago due to the high amount of spam the members sent through it and already forgot about it. He connected to the NN and opened the chat. A huge amount of notifications filled its display. He searched for the most recent one. How could it be possible for Lu message to be 500 notifications away if only two hours had passed? He tossed the Elshard back at his pocket and headed out.

“Vice-pres, are you going out too?”

Ciel apologized to the club members as he rushed out the room. The message said that Lu had a bit of a fever. It could be true since last night was cold and they were wet due to the foam party, but it could be something else. He ran across the hallways, disrupting every student he stumbled past. When he finally reached Lu’s room at the girl’s dorms, he saw that there was already someone knocking on her door. It was Lento.

Ciel stayed back and waited. Lento knocked the door several more times before calling for her, but he got no response. A girl from the next room peeked out of the door to tell him she may be resting due to being ill and Lento decided to leave. Ciel waited until he was already far away before knocking the door.

“Hey Lu, it’s me.” He said after making sure nobody else was present.

The sound of the door unlocking invited him to enter. The room was in total darkness, only a thin beam of light from the upper row of the blind entered the room. Lu was going back to bed when Ciel entered the room. He noticed she was wearing one of his own long lost t-shirts. It was a lot larger than Lu, so it covered almost to her knees and her hands were way into the sleeve. She waved one sleeve at him as a salute and holed up in bed again.

“How are you?” Ciel asked.

“It’s just a hungover, I just didn’t want to go outside this morning.” She answered.

Ciel grabbed the desk’s chair and sat next to Lu’s bed.

“Is that all? Because I was sure that Lento was here just now.” Ciel asked.

“He was? I guess I was asleep.”

“Is that so?” Ciel asked.

Lu laughed and rolled on her bed. Ciel looked around the room. The clothes Lu wore yesterday were lying on the floor, as well as her purse. She dropped it open and its contents were scattered on the ground. Ciel kneeled and picked them up.

“Ciel, do you want to get inside?” Lu asked.

Ciel looked at her. She had half of her face hidden under the blankets. She made some place under them for Ciel to slip in. However he was hesitant. He just remembered Raven.

“Actually, I should be doing something else now.” He answered.

“I could use some cuddles right now Ciel.” Lu asked stretching her arms as if she were trying to reach Ciel.

He sighed.

“Alright, but I’ll leave once you’re asleep. It’s really important that I get my errand done.”

Lu smiled. Ciel removed his coat and his shoes and got under the blankets. He squeezed Lu against his chest and she curled up there. Not much later, both of them were already asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Elesis sat at the usual spot with some of the gang members. The bar was already closed and, with all the patrons gone for the night, the owner was getting ready to leave. The TV was still on and broadcasting the news.

“A police raid this morning has successfully found a huge stash of Elum. The illegal substance was confiscated and an investigation is underway. There’s still no knowledge of the culprits of this trafficking operation.”

The broadcast continued, Elesis turned her attention to the others.

“It’s just as the report says: the Elum cargo we were going to steal is in the police custody and Raven will be in jail for about a week or two if everything goes well.”

The members there mumbled to each other. Elesis gave them some time. With Raven gone, those members were the highest ranks in the gang. They gathered today to discuss what will they do now.

“So, we either have two options: We can go full nuts and raid every possible culprit for the trick, or we can hide till things soften up a bit.” Elesis said.

The group kept quiet. Nobody actually was sure on what to do. The Elum cargo was gone forever now that it was on police’s hands; however there were chances that that one wasn’t the only cargo smuggled into Altera. On the other hand…

“I might just be paranoid, but we’ve hit a string of bad luck as of recently. I almost feel as if someone is targeting us. But I don’t even have a clue. And to top it off, since Chung is stuck in house arrest there’s more police than ever on campus.” Elesis said.

“What about the thing the kid found?” One of the members asked.

“Oh right, I have it right here. Chung found it hidden in the rafters above a classroom, but he forgot about it when they were discovered. Luckily for us another one took it before running away.” Elesis slid the box on to the table.

The box contents weren’t nothing more than a simple sheet with a drawing of a black horse in it.

“That’s all? We’ve lost Raven and that new boy over a kid’s drawing?” Another member said.

“Calm down, there’s a chance this has to do with everything.” Elesis said.

“Or it can just be some stupid drawing someone made and hid after feeling embarrassed about it.”

Elesis punched the table hard enough to rattle the table. “Everyone shut up.”

“As I was saying, this can be useful. Since you aren’t watching your tongue, I’ve decided that we’re going to suspend our activities until I say otherwise. Is that clear?” Elesis said.

One by one they all agreed. They started to leave, leaving Elesis alone. She wondered why the bartender hadn’t closed up yet. The security gate was halfway down, telling anyone walking on the street that the bar was closed. She took the box and decided to leave as well. Lost in thoughts, she rushed to the entrance, unaware of someone entering. They crashed, the box fell from her hands and so did a newspaper, scattering all of its pages over the ground. Elesis was about to yell to that person when she realized who she was. Student council president Eve.

“How surprising to see you here.” Elesis said.

“I come here often enough for you to already know about it, so I don’t think it’s that surprising.”

Elesis decided not to start a discussion and instead she tried to gather the newspaper in order to finish that encounter as soon as possible.

“What is this?” Eve asked.

Elesis looked up to see the box she was carrying in Eve’s hands.

“Hey! That is mine! Give it back.” Elesis protested.

“I wasn’t intending on keeping it. I was merely curious.”

Elesis snatched the box from Eve and gave her the ruined pile of newspaper.

“A thanks would be appreciated.” Elesis added.

“An apology would be appreciated.” Eve retorted.

They stared at each other and then Elesis attempted to leave.

“Actually, I came here to find you, I need you to do something.” Eve said before Elesis could cross the door.

“The bar’s closed and I want to leave.” Elesis replied.

“As I’ve been told you always excuse yourself before 11:00 PM, and go off somewhere on your own. If you want to be free for that hour, I suggest you stop complaining and get this done.”

Knowing there’s no way to stop her once she has set her mind to it, Elesis followed Eve to a table and sat down. Eve opened her bag and took out a form.

“That’s your student data ID form. You filled one of those in when you first enrolled in this school; however your situation seems to have changed recently so you need to update it. I highlighted the info you need to update by the way.” Eve stated.

The bartender arrived with a coffee and a croissant for Eve. She unfolded the newspaper and started reading it while leaving Elesis to fill her form. She quickly browsed through it anticipating some noticeable change. Her eyes stopped by some empty spaces highlighted with red marker such as “current home” and “family situation”.

Half an hour later Elesis dropped her pen.

“I’m going to be late. I’m sorry but this would have to wait.” She said passing the form back.

“Then finish it at home and give it to me tomorrow, after class ends.” Eve answered.

Elesis let out a sigh. She packed it up and left running.

“Hey, newbie; I need those over here.” Aisha yelled over a pile of papers scattered on a table.

Chung arrived with another tower of papers in both hands and left them on the table. He wiped his forehead looking at the huge pile. Aisha quickly divided it into smaller groups that she handled over the other members of the council. They were organized in what Aisha called the “square of efficiency”. Basically placing the tables forming a square and making everyone fill part of every document and then hand it to the one on the left. And so on. The only one out of that factory like system was Eve, who was in a bigger, more luxurious table separated from the others. Her usual tidy desk was now a sea of stacked documents and forms, surrounded in dozens of holo-screens that displayed text so fast it was incredible that Eve could even read it. Chung felt dizzy just from looking at it. Aisha finished organizing the team before grabbing Chung’s attention.

“Good job, now go get the rest. Are you sure you can handle it?” She said.

“Of course, I’m a Hamelian. I’m much stronger than the average man, this will be a cinch.” He answered.

It was the last day before the Harmony Festival. A festivity held all across the world celebrating peace. The school was going to do an open public festival with lots of activities and as a result there was a huge amount of paperwork to do. Of course every single club and organization waited for the last day to submit their forms, so it was going to be a long day. Chung thought it would be easy just carrying the papers in and out. But he quickly understood how mistaken he was. Every single form or document he had to get took an excessive amount of time to get ready. They either would be missing, half filled, or just poorly marked. And every minute that passed he would get a message on his Elshard from Aisha asking him to bring the documents to the council room already. It was incredibly stressful. At the end of the day he was so tired that he swears that shouldering the Destroyer was way easier. He carried the last tower of papers as the sun started to set.

“Good job Chung. I hope this first day did not scare you.” Aisha said patting him on the back.

“You can go home now; we’ll handle the rest.” Eve said, looking over the luminous displays for a second.

“Yeah, we’ll see you the day of the festival.” Aisha said, walking him to the door.

Once Chung was out, silence fell upon the room. The only things that could be heard were the buzzing of the holo-screens and the sound of pens writing. It was a time race to finish the job and sent it all to the school's office. Eve glanced at her clock and frowned.

“Are you waiting for something?” Aisha said without looking away from her work.

“Elesis should have come today to handle her ID form.” Eve complained getting back to work.

Aisha leaned back and sighed.

“Listen Eve, you should stop worrying about those delinquents. They just apprehended one of them the other one is forced to be our personal maid. They’re bad people, Eve.” Aisha said.

“That’s no reason to turn our back on the students.” Eve answered.

“Alright, you’re right. Look, I’ll finish things over here, why don’t you go and scold her in person?” Aisha said, walking over Eve’s table and lifting her from her chair.

“Are you sure you can manage? There are still 749 documents that need revision.” Eve said.

“Just go, don’t worry, we’ll pull an all-night if necessary.”

Eve left the council room a bit worried, so she decided to get that thing with Elesis done as quickly as possible. Frankly, Eve was starting to lose her patience with her. After being so tolerant with her she just continues causing trouble. It was really frustrating the way she just ignored her every time Eve tried to help. Before she knew it she was clenching her fists walking straight to the only place she knew she would find her: the usual bar.

But her pent up rage vanished upon finding the bar closed. The owner decided to go on a vacation during Harmony Festival. In front of the store, a group of students gathered, apparently as surprised as her about the bar closed. She recognized one of them as one of Elesis’ grunts.

“You are Henri Flanagan right? Can you tell me where Elesis is?” She asked politely.

“I’m sorry, but she always poofs by this hour... And how do you know my name?” He answered.

“I know every student’s name.” Eve answered while leaving.

She checked the clock. It was the usual time Elesis would just disappear. However if she was leaving she may be near the gates. So she went there just to be informed by the guard there that Elesis already left a while ago.

“Looking for Elesis?”

Eve turned to see agent Jack and Lieutenant Connors arrive. Their car was parked outside the walls. Jack wore his usual friendly smile while Connors had her neutral face on.

“We are here to watch over some students as we were ordered since the incident” Connors explained.

“Does that mean that you know where Elesis went?” Eve asked.

“We sent people to follow her; however we weren’t able to find the place she goes every day at this hour.” Jack said.

He pulled a notebook from inside his jacket and started reading various addresses and places that Elesis would pass by in her way to the unknown place. When he finished he tore a piece of it and wrote an address in it.

“This is the address where she always disappears. She enters the huge city mall located there and we always lost her track.” He said giving the paper to her.

“Thank you officer. I’ll go there.”

Eve made a call through her Elshard. In mere instants a luxurious car stopped in front of the gates. It was an all-terrain painted black, with shadowed windshield and windows. The front had a beautiful silver colored design around the air entrance. The door handles and every other detail was also made of metal in the same silver style. The driver door opened and a tall, winged figure emerged from it. It was a Nasod dressed in white robes adorned with gold. His face was hidden behind a golden helmet that obscured everything but his eyes which shined in a beautiful yellow color. The robes moved along the wind so freely that it looked like he didn’t have a body under them added to the fact that no legs were visible under them. Both his arms and legs were clad in a silver armor. He moved hovering a bit over the ground to the back passenger door and opened it with a gesture from his hand. The door slid upwards and three steps made out of blue light materialized leading the way into the passenger seat. Eve gracefully climbed them helped by the hand of the angelical Nasod. Officer Jack watched them leave and looked at his partner to say:

“Your buddies on Elision sure are preppy.”

Lieutenant Connors rolled her eyes and got back inside the car. It was a disguised police car. Not too gaudy nor too ruined. It was the perfect car to keep a low profile while spying someone. The dashboard was full of half eaten shortbread and cold coffee. An opened bag of chicken nuggets was placed over the gearshift and a suspicious looking camera was hidden in the open gloves compartment.

“Back to work, I guess.” Jack said, taking his place on the driver seat and picking one chicken nugget.

Eve’s car drove through the places Officer Jack said. Eve thought Elesis might have had a reason to visit them. However after seeing the small arrow on the car’s GPS system she realized that Elesis passed by those places to circle the area she was actually going. Probably doing it to check if she was followed. Eve could only think that being so cautious meant that she was up to no good.

“Zadkiel; take me to the mall directly.” Eve said to the driver.

The city mall referred in the address was really far away from the school. And there was also a bigger city mall near it, so it wasn’t very likely of any student to come here to do shopping. The building was very tall despite having only three floors. It was shaped as a star, with shops and other kind of establishments on each of the star’s tips and a big central area. The center had a rounded fountain and a lot of places to sit decorated with some plants here and there. It didn’t have any floor over it, making visible the ceiling of the huge building. The shops were arranged close to the walls and the hallways ran along them, creating a big balcony like path on each floor. The top of the city mall had a big skylight that poured its light on the interior. The way the building was designed and the beautiful aura that it had was in conflict with the kind of stores occupying it. Most of them were cheap and discount stores. Not even one brand or luxury store. Even the single jewelry on the first floor looked run down. The building was made beautiful to counter the neighbor it was in. Since it was on the outskirts most of the people living there was low or medium class. Maybe for that reason Zadkiel was a bit worried about leaving Eve there alone.

“I’ll be alright; I’ll call you when I’m done.” She said after stepping down the car.

A loud whistle marked the end of today’s rehearsal. Ciel, Lu and all the other members of the theatre club started packing their belongings.

“All right troop, this week is the big show: the Harmony festival. Use these free days to rest your voices; I want all of you fresh for the big day!” Lu said to everyone from the top of the stage.

Some mumbled replies were heard from the members. Ciel tried to wait for Lu and talk to her but he saw how Lento appeared in the door and called for her. Both of them went outside to talk so he decided to leave as well and send her a message later. He wondered what could be going on between these two.

“Hey, Ciel! Wait!”

He turned after hearing the voice call for him to find Lento running in his direction. Did Lu tell him about it? Ciel was hit with a wave of nervousness.

“So… I was going to go to training with Lu but she said she’s going with some friends to buy things for the play. So since you’re such good friends with her, why don’t you came along so we can get to know each other better?” He said.

Ciel felt relieved to know Lento still didn’t know about it, however he still wasn’t interested in expending time with him. However he already threw his arm over his shoulders and dragged him along.

“Wait Lento, I have things to do too.” Ciel protested.

“Oh, it will be just for half an hour.” Lento said cheerfully.

“WAIT, are you trying to recruit me?” Ciel said.

“Maybe.”

It wasn’t any secret that the kendo club was undergoing some problems due to the lack of members. They already got the citation from the council that the club would be disbanded if they didn’t do anything about it. The reason they were in such condition was the humiliating defeat they suffered last year in Elder tournament. A phoru named Wallace singlehandedly defeated all contenders from all the teams. Despite his obvious skills with the sword, everyone that lost to him was considered a weakling, and so the popularity among kendo clubs everywhere started to fall.

“You’ll see, now we admit all kinds of swordcraft, not only kendo. You use gunblades right?” Lento said.

“How did you know?” Ciel asked.

“Lu told me. She really speaks a lot about you man.”

“Really? And what does she say?” Ciel asked.

“She told me you were really boring until you started living with Raven.” Lento said with a laugh.

Ciel wasn’t really amused, but he remembers being a shut in until he and Raven were placed in the same room last year. They became good friends since then. They reached the gym where the few members of the kendo club were sat in a circle in the center of the room.

“We could recreate our club with a different name, maybe that would help get rid of our bad reputation.” One of the members was saying.

“Or we could train and win the tournament this time.” Lento said as he approached the circle.

The members of the kendo club stood after seeing Ciel arrive with Lento. They were as surprised as Ciel himself to be there. Lento asked then to start training so Ciel could decide whether to join or not. Of course Ciel didn’t have the slightest intention to do so, but he thought that just watching would make everyone there happy.He did took his Elshard to message Lu onlt to find that the NN was out of range there.

“Oh, the only place where that would work is up there.” Lento said after seeing Ciel moving his Elshard around trying to get reception.

The place Lento indicated was a window where a ladder was conveniently placed. He actually thanked the fact that it was separated from the club activities. He climbed it and peeked out of the window. He could see the tennis range from there. The Elshard get some bars of reception and he quickly sent a message to Lu.

“Your boyfriend kidnapped me. I’m watching a rundown kendo club.”

He looked back to see if someone there was missing his presence but all the members looked more interested in how they swung around their wooden swords. The Elshard beeped with the response from Lu.

“Don’t worry about it; he’s just desperate to get new members.”

“I just want to bail out of here. Why didn’t you include me in your excuse?” He typed.

The reply came in fast.

“Because it’s not an excuse, I’m actually buying props for the play.”

“Ok. Can I just say that you asked me to go over because you needed my help?”

He felt a shake in the stairs and looked down to see a club member gesturing at him as if he were asking how much time he would be up there.

“Fine” Lu replied.

He walked over Lento and excused himself. Despite how down he looked Ciel was actually happy he was able to flee that place. On his way his Elshard finally got reception again so he texted Lu again.

“Ok, I’m safe. But I need to get something done now, want to do something once both of us are free?”

He was planning to get Elesis to tell him what to do with the “goods” Raven gave him. He browsed through his shard until the name Elesis came up on the screen and pressed the call button. It took a while for her to answer.

“Make it quick, I’m busy.” Elesis said. Loud music could be heard in the background.

“Elesis, Raven gave me something I need to sell to pay for his bail. He told me to ask you about it.” Ciel said.

“I see, we can’t talk about it this way. I’ll see you in your room tonight.”

The call was cut by Elesis. Ciel stopped in his tracks, unsure of what to do now. He noticed Lu sent a message during the call.

“I’ll see you in your room later.”

“Well, since I’m having two girls over tonight I might as well tidy up the room…” Ciel thought to himself.

Eve stepped inside the city mall. There weren’t many people shopping at that hour of the day and most of the shops were already closed.

“Moby, Remy, come here.” She said.

A blue circle appeared behind her and two small orbs emerged from it. One black and white colored one the other white and black. They flew around her beeping in response for her call.

“Start scanning the area. Target is the NN trace of Elesis Sieghart Elshard device.” She said.

Both drones flew high and disappeared from sight. Although the Elshards were made in a way that avoided being tracked, some special devices and Nasods had the ability to track their trace similar to how a dog would follow a scent. It didn’t take long for the drones to detect the trace of Elesis. They returned and informed Eve. She followed them until the third floor of the city mall, there they took the back hallway. Although most of the stores were facing the central area, there were small corridors between them that leaded to more hidden places. Liquor stores, suspicious electronic workshops, sex shops and even discos where located in those shadowy spots. There’s no doubt the police would lose track of her here. The two drones guided Eve until the door of a place called “Jumping beauties”. There were nothing on the exterior showing what was inside. Eve did a quick search on the NN but found nothing about the place, so she entered to see what was going on.

She was shocked. The place was some kind of bar or disco, however there wasn’t a dance floor. The place was full of booths surrounded in walls high enough to block sight of what went on in them. The place abused the use of colored lighting; almost any item had a colored light inside it, even the stools. However the place was relatively dark, considering the amount of lights. It was hard to recognize any face. And it was unsettling the fact that the whole place looked kind of deserted excluding the voices that came from the booths. As she was just standing in the entrance, a suited man came over to talk to her.

“Welcome to the Bouncing Beauty my lady; do you want to join us?” The man said.

“I’m looking for Elesis Sieghart.” Eve said.

“Oh, I see. Then follow me.”

The man guided Eve through the place. It was bigger than expected. He finally stopped by the entrance to one of the booths and gestured for Eve to enter. He also hung something in the entrance that Eve could only glance as an “occupied” sign. She sat there and waited. Moby and Remy wandered around her before finally stopping on top of the small table on the center of the booth. Finally Elesis voice could be heard.

“Welcome to the Bouncing Beauty, what will the lady desire tonight?” She said as she walked in.

Elesis face went pale when she realized her customer was Eve. And Eve realized at that moment why the name of the place. Elesis was wearing a weird bunny costume. A black velvet one-piece costume that only covered from her waist to her shoulders, leaving a generous cleavage and adorned with a white fluffy tail on the back, combined with fishnets and high heels. Despite not having sleeves it still had white sleeve-ends. Topped with a white collar detached from the one-piece with a small black tie. But the most eye catching thing was the diadem adorned with two long black bunny ears she also was wearing.

“What are you doing here!?” Elesis gawped.

“That should be my question! Why are you at a place like this? Do you work here?” Eve replied eyes wide.

Elesis didn’t say anything for awhile. Eventually, she sidled closer to Eve, taking the available seat next to her. The man who just greeted Eve arrived at the booth.

“Is everything alright miss?” The man asked.

“Yeah.” Eve answered.

Eve waited for the man to leave before she spoke again.

“I can’t believe it. This place is so… immoral; why are you here? Answer at once!”

“I work here because they pay good and they don’t ask questions. There, you can go home now.” Elesis answered standing up to leave.

“NO!” Eve said.

Elesis sighed. This was the reason she never let anyone know about it.

“How did you find me in the first place?”

“The police followed you.” Eve answered.

“And why did you come here?”

“I didn’t know about this, I just thought you were up to no good again… not something like this.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I came to pick up the form I asked you to fill out yesterday.”

“Seriously? You traveled across town just for that? I could have handed it to you the next day.”

“I asked you to bring it today.” Eve answered.

Since Eve wouldn’t give up, Elesis just did for her. She stood to start explaining things to her.

“Alright, just so you know, this is just a bar. I wear this costume to entertain those perverts, but I don’t strip, I don’t dance and I don’t do whatever is crossing your mind now, so you can take your form and leave.”

“Even so this place is humiliating; you’re being objectified as a piece of meat.” Eve said.

“Look, all the things you’re thinking right now I’ve already gone through them in my head. Like I said, they pay and they don’t ask questions; that’s all I need.”

“If you needed money you could just ask. The school has an arrangement with the stores to hire students.”

“Yeah of course, but they only pay for your studies and your room, I need cash miss President.”

“But why?”

“I don’t think I want to tell you.”

“I could help you if you tell me.” Eve said.

“Oh really? Why would you even help me?” Elesis replied.

“Because I crossed the entire town to pick up a paper so you won’t get punished?”

Elesis left herself drop next to her. She threw an arm over Eve’s shoulders right as the boss passed by the booth.

“Alright, but now is not a right time… Look, once the Harmony Festival is over I’ll tell you everything. But please, could you drop it for now?” Elesis asked.

Eve really wanted to protest again, but since Elesis was looking so worried she decided to let it pass. Even though the amount of things Eve let pass about Elesis just grew a lot taller. She couldn’t believe Elesis would be working in such a place.

Ciel was wearing a mask and a rag over his hair while doing the cleaning when he heard knocking in the door. He removed his cleaning outfit and opened the door. As he was expecting, Lu had just arrived. She was carrying a lot of bags full of props for the play.

“Ciel! We just busted the club budget.” Lu said walking in.

“I hope you’re joking.” Ciel said peeking inside the boxes.

Items ranging from fake swords to breakable plates filled them. Except one that had a black piece of cloth in it.

“Oh, that’s the dress I just bought for the night of the festival. Do you want to see it on me?” Lu said taking it from Ciel hands and walking behind the drawer door.

“There’s a lot more of clothes here. You haven’t bought this with the club budget, did you?” Ciel said, peeking into more boxes.

“Of course not, the club budget isn’t enough to buy my fashion.” Lu said.

She stepped away for the door and spun around showing her dress. It was a skin-tight black dress that covered over her knees and left the shoulders exposed. It had two suspenders that also hid the bra and the sleeves were open from above, not covering the arm but falling around it.

“How is it?” Lu said.

“You look pretty.” He said.

“Pretty? Are you my dad or what? Say that I’m damn hot.” Lu said laughing.

“Alright, alright. By the way, I wanted to ask you something.” Ciel asked.

Lu peeked out of her improvised changing room and grabbed the bag full of clothes.

“Ask then, I’ll show you what else I bought.”

“I wanted to know if you were going to tell Lento about… the other day.” Ciel asked.

“You mean when we made out?” Lu asked stepping outside again.

This time she was wearing a long brown coat that almost entirely covered her.

“I think you’re too short for that coat. And yeah, I was talking about that.” Ciel added.

“Do you want me to tell him?” Lu asked going back in again.

“Well, I guess you should. I mean, after all you said back then I thought you two…”

Lu stepped out and this time she was wearing a baggy white shirt with some incomprehensible drawings on it and a pair of black shorts that were almost covered by the shirt. The collar of the shirt was wide enough to let a shoulder be exposed through it, allowing Ciel to see the black strap of her bra.

“You thought we were going to break up? Well, I wasn’t thinking on that at that time. But I want to break up with him now. I’ve been avoiding him, playing the cold act so maybe he try to break up first but there wasn’t any success until now.”

“That’s why you should tell him.” Ciel insisted.

“It’s not like I want to hurt him or something, Ciel.” She said sitting next to Ciel.

“Alright, do as you wish then.” Ciel said.

“So, are you going to stand there all day or...?” Lu asked, looking into Ciel’s eyes.

Ciel was a bit surprised when Lu climbed to his legs and wraps her arms around his neck, looking at him with a smile on her face. But his surprise went away as he realized Lu was looking for a kiss. Ciel gladly gave Lu the kiss she was longing for. Like the last time, they probed each other lips with their own before letting their tongues do the job. Ciel felt Lu’s tiny hands caressing his chest. It sent shivers through him when her fingers ran across his chest hair, beneath his shirt. Since Lu was the first one to make the move, he decided to go along and slid his hand under her shirt too.

The touch of Lu’s skin felt amazing, the area around her navel was softer than her hands. It was warm and smooth. Ciel let his hands move freely since Lu didn’t protested. However he avoided going for the chest area yet. He surrounded Lu’s body and pressed his hands against her back, drawing her closer to him. Lu moved to accommodate herself on top of Ciel, sitting astride over his lap. This caused Ciel to get a bit cautious, since Lu was resting herself on top of such a dangerous area. She actually noticed it and let out a small laugh, pulling away from the kiss.

“Ciel, why are you trying to hide it?” she asked.

Ciel didn’t had an answer for that.

“I don’t know… I don’t want to… startle you?” He said.

Lu laughed again, louder this time.

“Ciel, don’t worry about that. I know that you would be like that if we do this kind of thing. Just forget about it so we can enjoy this.”

With that said, Lu pressed her lips against Ciel’s. They only paused every now and then to breath in. After a while enjoying their kisses Lu pulled back and removed her shirt. Ciel was again surprised.

“Lu, are we…?”

“I don’t know where are we going to, but why don’t we just go and see where we end up?” She said tossing it on the floor.

Ciel followed Lu’s example and also removed his top. Lu smiled as she got close to it. He felt a jolt of pain when her small teeth locked on his nipple before leaving it with a kiss. She smiled and turned a bit to the said, holding her hair in a ponytail giving her back to Ciel. He saw the lock of Lu’s bra and guessed she wanted him to remove it.

Even while being able to see it he struggled undoing it. His hands shook and the small lock would flee his hands every time.

“Need some help?” Lu asked.

She reached it with her hand and pressed both sides of it. It opened so easily that Ciel felt a bit embarrassed about it; however he soon forgot about it when Lu faced him again. She was holding her bra against her chest. Ciel grabbed both stripes of it and slowly tugged from them. She finally let it go away and Ciel could see her bare chest. It wasn’t big but it had a special kind of charm to it. Ciel reached for it with his hands. It was even softer than the belly’s skin. The only part not as smooth would be the pink circles crowning each breast. They were soft at first, but each time his hand would touch them they would became lumpy as goose bumps appeared on them. He dared to reach for then with his lips, greeting them with a kiss and allowing himself to lick them a bit much to Lu’s pleasure.

Ciel couldn’t help but to look at the clock. It was past midnight, meaning Elesis would arrive any moment now.

“Hey Ciel, what about we prepare something from when we’re more in the mood for this?” Lu said as if she had noticed his uneasiness.

“Hey, who said I’m not in the mood? Actually I got so distracted I forgot to tell you that Elesis was going to come over to solve some things with Raven.”

Lu laughed.

“And you were going to go ahead with so much in your head?”

Ciel didn’t really know what to answer.

“Listen Ciel. It will be our first time so… I’d like for it to be special. Or at least to try to make it special… so you just wait and I’ll call you, ok?”

Even if it was a bit disappointing at the moment, Ciel realized that they wouldn’t be able to do a thing if Elesis were the arrive in the middle of it so he accepted. Lu started packing up her things and Ciel got his shirt back.

“Oh, also you should try to hide that before Elesis arrives…” Lu said pointing at Ciel pants.

He rushed to get his coat on and closed it. He bid farewell to Lu and she stood on her tiptoes to give a goodbye kiss to him.


End file.
